Brand Communication Strategy in e-Commerce

The e-Commerce sector stopped being the mythical El Dorado, where anyone could easily make money, a long time ago. In 2025, online trade looks completely different. Today, it’s a dynamic environment where thousands of new stores appear every day, and consumers are becoming increasingly demanding. It’s not easy. So how can you tip the scales in your favor in this competitive jungle and win loyal customers who will choose to spend their money in your online store? This is where a brand communication strategy in e-Commerce comes in play. What is it? How do you create it? And why is it so important? You’ll find out in this article.

The e-Commerce market is growing and changing at an alarming pace. According to the report “E-Commerce in Poland 2024”, as many as 78% of Polish internet users shop online. That’s over 24 million people who, with varying frequency, make their purchases on the Internet. That’s quite a lot. Especially when looking back at previous editions of this report, for example, the 2019 one, where we can see that back then, “only” 62% of internet users shopped online. The conclusion? Poles want to shop online, and they’re doing it more and more often. And this trend can be seen worldwide.

The number of online stores is also increasing. According to data from Dun & Bradstreet Poland, there are already over 72,000 e-Commerce businesses in Poland (as of the end of 2024). In 2023, there were 65,600. This means that in just one year, the number of online stores in our country grew by as many as 6,500. That’s a lot. Every year, more e-sellers join the market. And that means growing competition – across every industry in every country you could imagine.

A good product and a well-functioning store are no longer enough to stand out from the crowd and “shine” in the eyes of customers. Therefore, you need to find an alternative approach. Which one? That, of course, depends. But a good starting point is a well-thought-out communication strategy in e-Commerce.

What is a brand communication strategy in e-Commerce?

Let’s start with what it is NOT. It’s not a plan of social media posts or a schedule of ads for the next month or two.

A brand communication strategy is therefore a much broader concept than a content calendar for your company’s Instagram. It’s not about individual marketing campaigns, ads placed on Google Ads, or articles published on a blog.

A brand communication strategy is much more than that. It’s the foundation on which such individual activities are built. And it applies not only to the marketing of your online store, but also to customer service, product content, transactional emails, and even the language used in your store’s terms and conditions.

In short, a brand communication strategy is a document that outlines how your company will communicate with its audience at every possible touchpoint. It is therefore a roadmap that helps build your brand’s recognition, supports sales, and reduces the costs of acquiring and servicing customers.

We’ll discuss what exactly should be included in such a document a bit later. But for now, let’s think about…

Why does your e-Commerce need well-thought-out communication?

The answer “because it just does” or “because it’s important” probably won’t satisfy you. So here’s a list of eight reasons why it’s worth investing a bit of time and energy to create a solid brand communication strategy in e-Commerce.

You increase customer trust in your store and product

Online shopping comes with considerable risk. The customer buys a product they’ve never seen in real life. Sure, they’ve looked at the photos on your site, maybe even a video showing the product in action. But they couldn’t touch it, couldn’t take it off the shelf themselves. In a sense, they’re buying a pig in a poke (not literally, of course).

A thoughtful and consistent brand communication strategy fosters trust and mitigates the risks associated with online shopping. How? This document is where you outline your USP, define your brand promise, and set the rules that you then consistently apply across every touchpoint. You establish a specific tone of voice for product pages, a precise delivery and returns policy, and customer service standards. You also decide what trust signals you’ll show your customers (e.g., certificates, 360° photos, videos, authentic reviews, and case studies). You determine what you’ll say if something goes wrong (e.g., in the case of complaints).

The result? The customer knows what to expect at every stage, from the ad to unboxing and using the product. They can trust you and feel confident that they’ll be satisfied with their purchase.

You increase conversion

When you have a well-thought-out and consistent brand communication, your potential customers hear the same tone, the same promises, and the same benefits at every touchpoint. Your “claims” stick in their minds. Even if they don’t buy your product right away, such repetition reinforces the message. When they think again about purchasing something from your product range, they’ll remember your brand and come back to your store to place that dream order.

Consistent brand messaging at every stage of the customer journey helps reassure them that they’re making the right decision by buying from you. And if your product meets their expectations, they’ll return to place another order. As a result, your conversion rate will soar.

You lower customer acquisition costs

What won’t soar, however (thankfully), is your customer acquisition cost. In fact, it will even drop. Why?

Because if in every communication channel (not necessarily paid ones) you consistently drive the same message into your customers’ minds, they’ll simply remember you, especially if your brand communication strategy is designed in a way that leaves a positive impression on buyers.

You don’t need to plaster posters under every window of your potential customers or bombard them with a million identical ads. They already remember you. And if they had a good experience with your store and product, they’ll definitely come back when they need something from your offer.

You stand out from the competition

When preparing a brand communication strategy, you create the framework for your messaging. However, before writing such a document, you should analyze the market and examine how your competitors are approaching it. This way, you’ll be able to design a brand communication approach that, when executed consistently, makes you stand out from other companies.

Even if you sell very similar—or even identical—products as your competitors, a unique way of communicating will help you stand out. How? If you speak to your customers differently, tell them a different story, and position yourself with distinct values and archetypes, they’ll remember you. After all, you’re different. And a well-thought-out and unique communication strategy allows you to maintain that impression over time.

You reduce customer service and returns costs

In a well-prepared brand communication strategy, you determine what you communicate, where you do it, and how you deliver it. After all, you want to provide your customers with all the necessary information in a clear way that reflects your brand’s personality.

And since, when creating your strategy, you made sure your messages are clear and reach the customer in the right places, customers know exactly what they’re buying, from whom, what the order fulfillment process looks like, and how returns work. As a result, they don’t flood your customer service team with questions. They also return orders less often, because the “cat in a sack” they’re buying pokes its head out – they see what to expect. This leads them to make more informed purchase decisions.

You personalize and automate your messaging

Because you can. Since your brand communication strategy defines how you interact with your customers, you can partially automate this process. By using the data collected by your analytics tools, you can further personalize your communication, making it even more relevant to your customers.

Sending the right message at the right time has a significant impact on the effectiveness of your sales efforts (and beyond). But doing this manually is difficult. That’s why personalization and automation are such vital tools within a well-prepared communication strategy.

You make international expansion easier

When entering a new market, you don’t have to start from scratch. If you have already established communication principles in your strategy for your domestic market, adapting them to a new one isn’t a significant problem. All you need to do is adjust them to the realities of the country where you want to start selling (since consumer preferences and needs vary greatly depending on their country of origin). And that’s it.

You don’t have to begin at zero – you already have a foundation to build on (and you should). Launching your store and creating initial advertising campaigns will therefore be faster. And your international expansion will be much smoother.

You handle crises more effectively

A brand communication strategy is your defensive shield against crises. If you’ve created it properly, you’ve already anticipated the most common problems and outlined how you’ll deal with them. That way, you don’t panic the moment trouble arises. Instead, you act according to a plan you’ve already written down – one that aligns with your brand’s values.

By addressing issues such as complaints, negative online comments, or technical errors in line with your communication strategy, you not only resolve them more quickly but also suffer less reputational damage. After all, you’re responding in a way that’s consistent with your established communication.

As you can see, a well-thought-out brand communication strategy enables your business to grow by building a strong brand that can withstand any crisis. And let’s not forget about loyal customers, who – thanks to the principles laid out in your strategy – buy more.

Key elements of a brand communication strategy in e-Commerce

Consistent and well-thought-out communication pays off – that much we already know. But what exactly should such a strategic document include to deliver real results? Which elements must you define (and write down) to ensure your brand communication remains consistent in any situation?

1. Communication goals

When creating your brand communication strategy in e-Commerce, it’s best to start with goals. These will shape all your actions related to communicating with customers of your online store.

So first, you need to determine what you actually want to achieve through communication with your customers. This may vary from company to company.

For some, it may be increased brand awareness or an improvement in NPS. For others, it may mean greater engagement on social media, raising customer lifetime value (CLV), or boosting sales.

Your communication goals should align directly with your business objectives. So don’t just shoot in the dark. Don’t write down anything random just to check off the first point of your communication strategy. Take the time to define these goals seriously. They should serve as a genuine benchmark for all your future activities.

Remember, though, that your communication goals should be SMART. There’s no point in setting goals that are unrealistic or impossible to measure. Do it wisely, and the rest of your strategy-building process will be much easier.

Got your goals? Great – let’s move on to the specifics!

2. Mission, vision, and brand values

These are the foundations that define “why you exist” and what goals you aim to achieve.

If you’ve been active on the market for some time, chances are you already have these written down. Maybe they’re sitting in a metaphorical drawer, forgotten and gathering dust. Maybe they’re hanging on your office wall. Or perhaps they’ve only been spoken aloud but never documented. It’s time to fix that.

We won’t go into detail here about how to create them – you can find plenty of articles on that topic online.

(A not-so-small) piece of advice from us: write down your mission, vision, and values in one place. This will be the starting point for your communication strategy.

3. Brand archetype

This is a more visual way of defining who you are (or who you want to be) in the eyes of your customers.

The concept of archetypes was developed by Carl Jung and later applied to branding by Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson in their book “The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes.”

There are 12 basic brand archetypes. To keep this article concise, we’ll refer you to the book mentioned above and to the n-Vision website, where you’ll find a complete catalog of archetypes described in detail. Choose the one that best fits your e-Commerce business and make sure to write it down in your brand communication strategy document, along with a short description.

This will come in handy when you move on to designing your tone of voice and key visuals.

4. Buyer personas

These are fictional profiles of your ideal customers. Typically, a buyer persona takes the form of a single A4 page listing all the key characteristics of your customer, their needs, fears, purchasing barriers, preferred communication channels, demographics, and even… a sample photo.

A buyer persona helps you better understand your customer and makes them feel a bit more “tangible.” This allows you to communicate more effectively and better tailor your offer to their needs.

Of course, for a buyer persona to be helpful in any way, it must be based on real data.

Your assumptions or “dreams” about what your customer should be like won’t help you at all. We’re talking about real people who are supposed to make real purchases in your store. You need to analyze your e-Commerce users’ behavior carefully and research their preferences, rather than making guesses. Only then will you know who you’re talking to, and this knowledge will allow you to design communication that effectively reaches those very people.

5. Tone of voice

Now we move on to specifics – HOW you will communicate with your customers. Tone of voice is fundamental. It defines the language and communication style your e-Commerce brand will use – whether it will sound formal, casual, humorous, or authoritative and expert.

When defining your tone of voice, you can’t be guided by your personal preferences – “I like it when brands crack jokes in ads, so we’ll do that too.” NO! You cannot approach it this way. It simply won’t work.

Your tone of voice should be the natural consequence of the elements you’ve already established – your mission, vision, values, chosen brand archetype, and buyer personas. You wrote those things down precisely so you could use them as the basis for defining a style of language that best reflects your brand’s character and reaches straight into… your customers’ wallets.

6. Brand messaging

That is, the main brand messages. It’s a set of the most important statements and promises that you will repeat across all your channels. They should stem from your offer and everything you have established so far in your e-Commerce brand communication strategy.

Do you offer a 100-day return policy? Use it to create a catchy message. Are your products handmade with attention to every detail? Do you offer only environmentally friendly products? Are your prices the lowest? Do your goods help in the daily life of young mothers? From all of this, you can craft brand promises that will enable your audience to identify with your brand and persuade them to purchase (and stay with you longer). Still having trouble designing good brand messaging?

Brand messaging is the kind of slogan that sets the direction of your brand’s communication and makes it memorable. Thanks to it, customers can identify with your message and are more willing to buy from you.

7. Key visual

That is, how your brand looks (Yes! Across all communication channels). This is where you define the colors you will use (if you haven’t already), decorative elements, and the general style of all kinds of graphics and ads. We assume you already have a logo 😉.

The rule is simple – the look of your marketing materials (and not only those) should be consistent. This means that in every communication channel – in your store, on company social media, in an offline store, and even in TV ads – you use the same colors, fonts, graphic style, and layout.

The recipients of your messages should immediately know that it’s an ad or a post from your company. That’s the whole point. Your potential customer should remember you. Only then will they visit your store when they need something from your product catalog.

Remember, however, that your colors and visual character should result from all the previously established elements – mission, vision, archetype, buyer persona, tone of voice, and brand message. Black is not the best color for a brand selling toys for newborns. Likewise, pink may not be the best choice for a company producing electric shavers for men.

Colors, fonts, and the overall visual style matter. It’s worth thinking them through carefully. And ideally, entrust this to professionals.

8. Communication channels

In e-Commerce, it’s not only about HOW you communicate, but also WHERE you do it. That’s why your brand strategy document should include all the channels where you will “talk” to your customers.

At this stage, it’s worth mapping out your customer journey – the entire path your customers take to purchase a product from you. Every touchpoint matters: from a Google listing, through Meta ads, all the way to the return form, website chatbot, customer service, or even the box you ship your goods in. All of these are customer-brand interactions. You need to connect them into a single, consistent communication system.

But simply listing the channels isn’t enough. For each one, you need to define its role in the ecosystem as well as the ways of communicating that fit the channel’s specific nature.

You want your communication to be consistent. But that doesn’t mean it should look the same everywhere. In fact, it can’t. Emails are different from banners in your online store, and a live chat conversation is nothing like a post on Instagram.

Your messages should be consistent, but the form of expression must differ from channel to channel. And that’s precisely what you should carefully describe in this part of your e-Commerce brand communication strategy.

9. Customer service standards

The support department is one of the most critical areas in e-Commerce, where a lot of good can happen. Efficiently handling a complaint or inquiry can turn negative customer perception into a positive experience. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true: poorly handled communication can cause a lot of damage.

That’s why your brand communication strategy in e-Commerce should pay special attention to this process.

Every person answering chat messages in your store, replying to emails, or taking customer calls is unique. They may respond differently, use other words, or simply have their own style of working.

But you want to send out consistent messages that reflect your business values. That’s why you need to establish specific rules – what language your support team should use, what procedures apply in particular scenarios, how to reply to social media comments, and how to handle complaints.

If you define all this in advance, you’ll create consistent customer service standards. You won’t have to worry that the following inquiry will be handled in a completely different way, and that the carefully built image of your brand across other channels will collapse like a house of cards.

So write down all your customer service procedures clearly in your e-Commerce communication strategy, and make sure they are consistent with all the elements you’ve already established in this document.

10. KPIs and methods of measuring effectiveness

Trust us, you don’t need another document gathering virtual dust on your hard drive. What you do need are concrete communication guidelines that deliver positive results.

But to know whether your strategy is working, you must measure its effectiveness. That’s why it’s worth tracking metrics such as:

Reach and visibility of communication

• CTR (Click-Through Rate) – how many users click on ads, emails, or posts.
• Reach & Impressions – how many unique users encountered the message.
• Share of Voice (SOV) – your brand’s share of voice in the entire category (mentions in social media, press, etc.).

Audience engagement

• Engagement Rate – ratio of interactions (likes, comments, shares, clicks) to impressions/followers.
• Average Session Duration – whether communication leads to more valuable website visits.
• Bounce Rate – whether the message matches intent and captures attention.

Conversions and sales

• Conversion Rate (CR) – what percentage of message recipients end up making a purchase.
• CPA (Cost per Acquisition) – the cost of acquiring one customer from a given communication campaign.
• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) – return on investment from ad campaigns.
• AOV (Average Order Value) – whether communication drives cross-/upselling.

Retention and loyalty

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – long-term value of a customer acquired through communication.
• Repeat Purchase Rate – how many customers return after their first purchase.
• Churn Rate – how many customers “drop off” in a given period.
• NPS (Net Promoter Score) – how likely customers are to recommend your store to others.

Customer service and reputation

• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) – satisfaction after interaction (e.g., after live chat or email).
• Sentiment Analysis – tone of conversations about your brand in social media and reviews.
• Response Time – how quickly your brand reacts to questions and issues.

Measuring the effectiveness of communication efforts is a challenging task. But it’s far from impossible.

It’s essential to track the KPIs that align with the goals you set at the very beginning of building your e-Commerce brand communication strategy. Conclude them and use the insights to shape an effective way of communicating with your store’s customers.

11. Crisis procedures

It’s worth preparing for problems in advance. You definitely don’t want to wake up in the middle of a crisis storm without knowing how to get out of it.

That’s why we create procedures for times when things get complicated.

We won’t advise you here on how to deal with your company’s poor financial condition or a tax office inspection. That’s not what this article is about.

In your e-Commerce brand communication strategy, you want to prepare for problems in the area of business–customer relations. And there can be quite a few of those. From social media hate to PR blunders, all the way to customer service failures. The list is practically endless.

And while you won’t be able to predict every possible crisis, it’s still worth creating ready-made scenarios for those most likely to occur and those that could cost you the most.

So, in this part of your e-Commerce brand communication strategy, list all the problems that could arise in connection with communicating with your audience. Think carefully about what could go wrong, and develop plans for how you’ll handle those situations.

The more precisely you describe crisis resolution scenarios, the better your employees will be able to handle them.

However, remember that your crisis plan must be consistent with your brand communication strategy. So, if honesty is the number one value you outlined in this document, don’t tell customers, who are already waiting longer than expected for their order, that their product will arrive tomorrow if you don’t even have it in stock yet.

Keep in mind that you created all the above elements for a reason – to build a strong and consistent image of your brand. Don’t let your crisis management approach undermine the hard work you’ve put into developing your communication strategy and… building a powerful brand.

The most common mistakes in e-Commerce communication

What happens when you don’t put enough effort into creating and consistently executing your brand communication strategy? Problems arise. Some are visible immediately, such as declining sales, an increase in customer service inquiries, or a surge of negative reviews. Others are more insidious: rising customer acquisition costs or the fact that your brand simply disappears in the sea of competitors.

To make things easier for you, we’ve gathered the most common mistakes that regularly occur in e-Commerce. Avoid them like the plague. And if they’ve already shown up in your store – act! The faster you solve the issue, the easier it will be to put out any potential fires.

As you can see, most of these aren’t spectacular blunders, but rather small oversights. The problem is that such “minor mistakes,” when scaled across the entire business, can have a significant impact on your results. That’s why it’s worth regularly checking whether you’re falling into any of these traps and adjusting course if needed. After all, you don’t want your customers to correct you… by leaving for the competition.

Summary

A well-designed and consistently executed communication strategy in e-Commerce is much more than catchy slogans and pretty graphics on social media. It’s the foundation that allows you to build brand recognition, earn customer trust, and sell more – at lower costs.

WITHOUT IT, you’ll quickly fall into chaos: inconsistent messages, frustrated customers, and rising marketing expenses.
WITH IT, you gain a clear direction that makes decision-making easier, helps you respond better to crises, and allows you to strengthen your market position consistently.

So, if until now you’ve been communicating with customers more by “gut feeling,” take this article as a sign to change that. Write down the rules, set your goals, define your language and standards, and then stick to them across every channel. Your brand will reward you with higher sales, greater customer loyalty, and a calmer mind in the everyday running of your e-business.