Success in e-commerce—sell more with a .store domain

.store domains are a type of internet domain designed for companies, businesses, and online stores that want to focus their online presence on selling products and services. The .store domain is widely used by online stores and e-commerce companies, but you can also use it for many other industries.

By choosing a .store domain, your business will clearly communicate its online activities, highlighting its sales offerings. .store domains are also often considered attractive from a marketing perspective because they are easy to remember and reflect the nature of the business.

Who manages the .store domain?

The .store domain is managed by its registry—the organization Radix.

Radix commissioned a comprehensive 12-month study, which confirmed that .store is the best domain extension for e-commerce.

This study demonstrated that an online store operating on a .store domain enjoys clear benefits, such as:

increased traffic,
lower conversion costs compared to a generic TLD,
and nearly double the visibility (better rankings) in search engines compared to a generic TLD.

The e-commerce industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors on the Internet. Now is the perfect time to introduce you to the ideal domain extension for your business, one that will help you maximize your revenue.

E-commerce opportunities and the growing trend in e-commerce

The growth of e-commerce was one of the most noticeable trends during the coronavirus pandemic. With restrictions on brick-and-mortar retail, lockdowns, and shifting consumer shopping preferences, many people turned to online shopping, leading to rapid growth in the e-commerce sector.

The pandemic forced many companies to adapt to the new reality by moving their operations online or strengthening their existing online presence. Online stores have become the primary sales channel for many companies, and e-commerce platforms have experienced increased traffic and consumer interest.

Upward trend in e-commerce sales

Since 2020, the growth rate of traditional retail has slowed, and no significant changes in this trend are expected.
Nearly 55% of online retail sales come from B2C, i.e., sales to individual customers.

So if you’re planning to enter the e-commerce market, target individual customers–B2C sales. Regardless of your specific customer base, however, the market is growing and will continue to grow.

The upward trend in the number of e-commerce websites

The number of e-commerce websites has quadrupled—from 6 to nearly 24 million over the past 4 years—and continues to grow.
Of all websites created in the fourth quarter of 2023, as many as 28% were e-commerce-related.
What’s more, e-commerce websites currently rank first in terms of the number of websites being designed.

The rapid increase in the number of projects proves that the e-commerce industry is growing dynamically.

The .store domain and the e-commerce industry

.Store is a very distinctive extension that indicates the type of business conducted by a website.

As the importance of online commerce grows, .store domains are also becoming increasingly popular.

Over 48% increase in the number of .store domain registrations since the beginning of 2021.

Along with the number of registrations, the number of .store domain renewals is also growing (43% increase).

More and more entrepreneurs are choosing to run their businesses under the .store domain.

Radix reports that over 1.5 million .store domains have already been registered.

Websites with this extension are used by a wide variety of industries—from fashion to electronics, from food to services—to build their online presence and increase sales.

The .store domain offers many benefits for companies engaged in online sales:

It’s easy to remember and identifies the website as a place to shop, which can attract potential customers.
Thanks to the uniqueness of this extension, a company can stand out from competitors who use traditional extensions such as .pl or .com.

In short: .Store is an effective way to let your customers know they can buy something from you. With a .store domain, you have the chance to attract more customers!

Register .store for €22,05 or $23,97

Use of the .store domain by online e-commerce platforms

To support the claim that .store will attract more customers, Radix cited hard data in its research, drawn from two leading online marketplaces:

Shopify: The .store domain is the second-best-selling TLD after .com.
Etsy: 70% of registered domains have the .store extension.

Shopify is one of the world’s most popular platforms for creating online stores on your own.

According to Shopify, stores with the .store extension generate 3 times more sales than those with the .org extension and 1.8 times more than those with the .net extension.

Etsy is an international marketplace that allows users to buy and sell handmade goods and craft supplies. A similar platform is allegro.pl, but while you can buy practically anything on Allegro, Etsy is more specialized.

Etsy also offers a paid Plus plan that includes a .store domain registration.

Etsy’s promotion of .store and results from Shopify demonstrate that this extension is a good fit for the e-commerce market. .Store is therefore an excellent response to the demand among your business’s potential customers.

Does a .store domain affect search engine rankings?

According to official sources, including the Google Webmaster Central Blog and statements by John Mueller (a trend analyst at Google), the domain does not affect a website’s ranking in search results.

Radix, as a registry for many internet domains, wanted to verify whether this is actually the case.

Therefore, it commissioned an independent marketing agency to conduct a very thorough study on this topic. The .store domain registry was interested in determining whether a short, topic-specific domain extension has an impact on:

better SEO results,
a higher number of clicks (the so-called conversion rate),
and, ultimately, search engine rankings on Google.

This was compared to generic domain extensions that do not indicate the website’s subject matter—namely, e-commerce.

The study involved an 18-month experiment during which two online stores were launched:

The first was named: brand_name.generic_TLD.
The second: brand_name.store.

Data on the impact on SEO and paid advertising in Google Ads was collected over a 12-month period.

Excluding the domain name, all other data was nearly identical.

Below, we present only the most important results:

The Impact of the domain name on organic search

A chart showing a comparison of search engine results for both stores.

Interpretation of the results:

Nearly 2x more impressions for .store.
Nearly 1.9x more clicks for .store.

Impact of the domain name on paid advertising on Google (Google Ads)

A chart comparing paid ad results for both stores.

Interpretation of the results:

16% more clicks for .store.
12% lower cost per click for .store.

Ultimately, the authors of the study were surprised by the results. The store with the .store domain name achieved significantly better results than the one with a standard domain name.

You can find the full report from the study commissioned by Radix at: https://contrast.digital/blog/domain-tld-experiment/.

In summary: the .store domain can drive more traffic to your store!

Summary

Finally, here are some websites from various popular industries that use the .store domain to effectively promote and sell their products online:

Emirates National Airline - https://www.emirates.store/
Shakira’s official store - https://shakira.store/
Rihanna’s brand store - https://rihanna.store/
Cristiano Ronaldo’s brand store - https://cr7fragrances.store

Choose the domain extension that many global companies have opted for and increase your chances of growing your business.

.Store fits perfectly with the current trend in e-commerce growth. It’s short, distinctive, and clearly signals to your customers that they can buy something from you.

Whether you want to expand your business or are launching a new venture, take advantage of the .store domain.