You’re starting an online store. You have been focusing on how to start an online store successfully, getting all your products together, planning out your marketing and sales strategies, figuring out your logistics and more. Amidst all of this, your online store’s logo seems like such a small part of the overall shopping experience you’re about to offer. Right?
Wrong.
Your logo is the face of your brand. It’s like having an identity or a face that your customers can relate to. It’s how they start identifying your brand amidst all the content they’re promoted online. It’s how they start to relate you with experiences. And a good experience is exactly what you’re aiming at when starting an online store.
In this article, we’re talking about the importance of having a logo, how to design an online store logo with Hatchful Shopify and the best tips to keep in mind to get your brand representation right and the common mistakes you should avoid.
Why is a logo important for your Shopify store brand?
You’ve spent days, weeks or even months starting an online store. Whether you’re running a grocery store, an online essentials store, a fashion retail business or a dropshipping store - no matter which industry your business is in, there are thousands of others competing for the same consumer’s attention.
Imagine having 10 brands that don’t have a logo or any kind of branding in place, selling t-shirts. How do you differentiate one from the other when you see posts from them on Instagram? How do you know which one is the store you had liked products on?
This is where having a logo would have helped. The business for acquiring a customer and a customer for easy brand recognition.
1. Your logo speaks about your brand
There’s a story behind every brand and your logo is the representation of it all. You could have the best about us page with a story that wins hearts. But without a logo, it’s incomplete. There’s no ‘one’ element that condenses that story and represents your company’s culture and values.
Think about Nike. The swoosh represents half of a running track. If you take the ‘swoosh’ from the logo and flip it, you’ll be able to create a complete running track. The Co-Founder, Phil Knight, had wanted a brand logo that was simple and indicative of motion and speed.
2. Your logo makes your brand memorable
Continuing on our example above. No matter where you see their logo, you can identify Nike instantly - even if you just see the swoosh. If you see another brand copying the same logo style, it’s not that brand that comes to mind - it is Nike you’re reminded of.
That’s the power of your logo. It builds familiarity and a strong connection in the consumer’s brains - so strong that they no longer have to read to identify a brand!
3. Your logo is the first thing your shoppers see
Irrespective of the platform a shopper discovers your brand on, your logo is the first thing that grabs attention. You could have a full advertisement talking about your products, how they are different from others and the deals you’re offering. But it’s the logo they see associated with the advertisement that makes your brand interesting (or not) to be engaged with.
4. Your logo establishes credibility and trust
Assume you see two brands. One that has the picture of a flower in their logo - something they got off a stock image website. The other one has used the icon of a flower to create their own logo out of it. Which one do you think you’ll trust as being a legitimate business? Obviously the latter because it feels like they put in an ‘effort’ to get their brand identity in place.
It’s not just about coming across as credible and professional. The design of your logo also has an impact on people’s emotions. What they perceive of your brand from your logo will go a long way in turning them into your customers or even remaining loyal to it.
5. Your logo boosts your customer loyalty
Speaking of loyalty, your logo is not just your identity. It is also a signature of your business. A signature that indicates that when a shopper engages with your brand, you take complete ownership of the experience. That you’re accountable for holding their information, the online transactions they make and more.
When you show how you’re taking responsibility for all experiences, you strengthen the trust a shopper can have in your brand. This boosts customer loyalty in the long run.
When you start an online store on Shopify, it automatically generates a text-based logo for your brand. But it’s still important to have a custom logo. That’s why we built Hatchful - an online logo maker for Shopify stores.
How to design an online store logo with Hatchful
Hatchful by Shopify is an online logo maker. It walks you through simple steps to make it easier for you to visualize how you want your brand to be represented and to understand your preferences. Based on your inputs, it then suggests logos from the thousands of editable templates available.
You can simply pick the one closest to how you want to visualize your brand, customize it with your brand’s colors and fonts and then download all the assets you need.
All of this, in just a few minutes. Create your Shopify online store logo on Hatchful today!
Here’s a step-by-step to using Hatchful if you want to get an idea of how easy it is to design an online store logo:
Step 1: Go to Hatchful and click on Get Started.
Step 2: Next, choose the business space that describes what you’re selling on your Shopify store the best and click Next.
If you don’t see an industry that matches your store’s products, simply select None of the above. The next questions will still help you design an online store logo - don’t worry!
Step 3: Choose a visual style you’d like for your online store logo. Hatchful has included all the trending logo design styles here to make it easy for you to decide. Click Next once you take your pick!
If none of the design styles is close to what you want for your Shopify store’s logo, select None of the above.
Step 4: The next step is to add your business name and tagline (if you have one). If you are not 100% sure on this yet, you can always change the information after your logo design has been created.
Step 5: After that, tell Hatchful where you want the logo to be used. This is important for the formatting of your logo.
If you’re just starting an online store on Shopify, select all the options here to get all your brand assets in place.
Step 6: The online shop logo design tool then automatically creates thousands of logos for your Shopify store using the templates it has.
You can browse through the collection on this page to choose the one that depicts your business the best and would match your branding on customization.
If you’re not happy with the template you choose on customizing it, you can always move back to this step.
Step 7: Start customizing your online shop logo design. Here you can change your business name and slogan to complement the design you’ve picked for the logo.
Step 8: After that, move to Fonts. Here you can view all fonts and select the style that you like the best. You can filter the results by clicking on the drop-down menu to select the font style if you already have something in mind.
Step 9: Then click on Colors to start customizing your online store logo design to match the brand colors you want to keep.
By clicking on the drop-down menu, you can choose what kind of color palette you want to use. Hatchful will then populate colors based on the selection you make.
Step 10: Next, pick a layout for your logo design and then click Next.
Once you’d done with all the edits, use the following questions as a checklist to design your online store logo:
- Does your logo look have a professional appearance?
- Is your logo attractive?
- Is your logo simple and memorable?
- Does your logo design represent your brand’s vision well?
- Is your logo design versatile and scalable for both print and digital media?
- Does your logo look as aesthetic in both black and white and in color?
- Does your logo have a timeless design that doesn’t bank on temporary trends?
- Does your logo have a color scheme that matches your brand’s personality?
Step 11: After this, Hatchful creates a final copy of your online store logo. At this step, you can download all the versions of your logo file.
Right from the favicon for your Shopify store site to profile photos for all your social media pages, Hatchful creates all the files for you.
On this page, you can also get a preview of how your logo looks across all the social media channels and your online assets. If you choose to customize the logo further, you can click on Back to go back and make changes.
And you’re done!
Ready to create an online store logo? Get started on Hatchful by Shopify today!
Best practices on how to design an online store logo
Hatchful is one of the best and the fastest online logo makers for businesses. The smart tool takes everything you need on how to design an online store logo that makes an impression on customers, into account.
But there are still a few decisions that you have to make while designing your identity on the online logo maker. Here are some of the best practices you need to keep in mind when using the Shopify logo maker:
1. Make it versatile
As you build an online presence for your Shopify store, your logo is going to be seen on different platforms, in different formats and sizes. To ensure that the quality and readability of your logo is not impacted, you’re going to need to have copies in different file formats. That’s why your logo design should be versatile enough to be readable at all sizes and colors.
While it is important to create a logo design that stands out, it is also important to make sure it does not look too busy. Consider removing superfluous elements and using flashy fonts - they might look great in a bigger size, but once confined to a smaller dimension, it makes everything blurry.
2. Choose the right colors
Similar to how the color of your clothes on a given day impact your overall mood, your logo design color palette impacts the perception of a customer - positively or negatively. And of course, you don’t want to fall on the negative side of the spectrum.
According to research, humans have a cognitive-emotional response to colors. So the color you choose for your logo will eventually have an impact on whether or not they engage with your brand in any way - let alone purchase from it.
While choosing the colors for your online store logo design, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is the color of your logo making your business look reliable?
- Does the logo design color convey your brand’s voice?
- Does your logo match what you want the customers to perceive your brand as?
- What kind of feelings do you want to trigger in a customer on seeing your logo?
- Is the logo color helping you differentiate your brand from the other stores?
- Will you be able to keep all your brand collaterals in line and consistent with your logo colors?
- Is your logo color legible in black and white or grayscale?
Here’s a simple color emotion guide you can use:
The color you choose for your logo also has an impact on how people remember you. For example, red is a color that people have associated Coca-Cola with for years. Similarly, one look at yellow and you’re reminded of McDonald’s.
3. Think about longevity
Popular brands across various industries have not changed their logo as much since their creation. Think about Nike or the likes of Coca-Cola. They made slight changes to their logo design but retained the core layout, color palette and style over the years. This has helped the brands improve their logo recognition, creating better brand recall.
So remember that when you’re working on your logo design, the goal should be to create something that doesn’t need drastic changes in just a year or so. Spend a little more time on Hatchful to find a logo design and customize it for your brand, but try to get right the first time!
A few no-nos to ensure your logo design longevity are:
- Using stock images in your logo
- Creating busy or complex designs
- Using hard to read fonts
- Using too bright or too light a color palette
Remember, whether you design your own logo using a Shopify logo maker like Hatchful or outsource your branding to a designer, the idea is to create something that becomes an extension of your own identity. Your logo needs to be more than just a brand representation. It needs to be something that is also a reflection of your brand’s message!
Ready to give your Shopify store an identity that customers fall in love with?
Create your logo for FREE on Hatchful by Shopify.
Don’t have an online store yet?
Build an online business with Shopify. Sign up for a free trial.