How to Choose a Shopify Store Name

Choosing a Shopify store name isn’t as easy as it seems. There are many things you need to consider.

You need to pick a catchy business name that is easy to remember and looks professional for your Shopify business because it’s something that represents your brand online, highlights what you sell or who your ideal customers are, and most importantly, impacts SEO.

Even if you change your Shopify store’s name (let’s say after five years), it could cost you more money, time, and lower search engine rankings.

That’s how important a good name is. But you don’t have to worry about it.

In this blog post, we will give you the 10 best ideas on choosing the right name for your Shopify store that is catchy, memorable, and brandable.

Shopify domain or your own primary domain?

You can of course choose to host your shop on Shopify’s domain. In that case, your Shopify store’s URL will look like this: YOURSHOPNAME.shopify.com.

However, most Shopify store owners prefer to register a non-Shopify custom domain and then transfer it to Shopify. We will focus on this popular option and tell you how to choose a good Shopify store name outside of Shopify’s domain.

How to choose a Shopify store name (10 Simple Steps)

• Stick with the .com domain extension 
• Keep it simple and short
• Make it unique and brandable
• Make it easy to remember, spell, and pronounce
• Add a keyword in your domain name if possible
• Don’t repeat letters
• Avoid using numbers and hyphens
• Use domain name generators to get ideas
• Check that it’s not trademarked
• Register your domain before someone takes it 

1. Stick with the .com domain extension for your Shopify store

Before buying a domain, you need to choose an extension. An extension also called the top-level domain (TLD), is the last part of a domain name. For example, in the domain name “Google.com”, “.com” is the extension.

Hundreds of domain extensions are available, and it’s hard to choose one that suits your business or purpose.

According to W3techs, 59% of total websites are registered with the .com, .net, and .org domains. Amongst them, .com is the most popular and widely used (50%).

Due to the massive popularity of the .com domain, non-techies automatically add .com at the end of a website if they can’t remember a website.

For example, your domain name is “dogfood.store”. If they can’t remember your domain name, they will end up visiting “dogsfoodstore.com”.

That’s why we always recommend registering your domain with the .com extension. Here’s an in-depth guide on .com vs .net that explains which domain extension is good for your business.

Note: if you are keeping a non-.com domain, make sure it can be used with Shopify. Some of the domains just can’t be transferred to Shopify, for example, .ca and .co.uk domains are not eligible for transferring into Shopify.

2. Keep your Shopify shop name simple and short

You can add anything to your domain name, and the length can be up to 63 characters. But make sure you keep your domain name as short and straightforward as possible.

Longer names are harder to remember, and sometimes people may mistype the name. In case this happens, they will end up visiting another website. As a result, you will lose your traffic.

The ideal domain length should be 10-16 characters. The shorter, the better.

Take “Google, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Walmart, etc.” as an example. These names are simple, short, and memorable without any doubt.

3. Make your store name unique and brandable

Your business name should be unique and brandable so that it stands out from the competition.

A unique, brandable name can be anything and doesn’t require any real meaning. Just think about Google. The word Google doesn’t have a real meaning but it is one of the most popular websites in the world.

Also, you shouldn’t copy your competitors’ names or modify them; in that case, the opposite could happen.

Let’s say you opened an eCommerce store, “Wallmartz.com”, which is similar to “Wallmart.com”. As “Wallmart.com” is a famous brand and highly authoritative in the eCommerce field, people will usually visit their website.

If you can’t find a good name, get help from your friends or colleagues. You can even use your own name and build a brand.

4. Make it easy to remember, spell, and pronounce

It’s essential to have a domain name that is easy to spell and pronounce because you want potential customers to remember your business’s name forever so they can make purchases over and over again.

To verify whether the name is easy to pronounce, write it down on a note paper and ask some of your friends or colleagues to pronounce the name. If most of them struggle to pronounce it, you should come up with a new name.

5. Add a keyword in your domain name if possible

Add a keyword in your Shopify shop name if possible. By adding a relevant keyword in your domain, you tell people what your online business is about or who your ideal customers For example, if you want to sell computer peripherals, you can name your store something like “PCTools.com” or “ToolsForPC.com”, this highlights the purpose of your business and can help your google rankings.

Read more about how to drive traffic to your Shopify store

6. Don’t repeat letters

As we mentioned earlier that .com is the most popular domain name in the world, it looks like all the good names are already taken.

For this reason, most beginners usually repeat one or more letters so that the domain becomes available to register. Not to mention, this often makes people confused.

Let’s look at what you should avoid:

• MyDomain.com – Good name
• MyyDoomain.com – Bad name

7. Avoid using numbers and hyphens

Avoid registering a domain with numbers or hyphens. The domains that contain hyphens or numbers don’t seem brandable. And these types of names are primarily used by spammers.

Just look at the most popular websites, such as Facebook, Google, Walmart, YouTube, etc. These domain names are simple, short, and don’t contain any numbers or hyphens.

8. Use domain name generators and business name generators to get ideas for your Shopify store

There are more than 370 million domain names already registered across all top-level domains. And it looks like all the good names you searched for are already taken.

So, you have to come up with new domain ideas manually and check whether it’s available for registration.

That’s where a domain name generator tool comes in. A domain name generator is a tool that generates hundreds of fresh domain name ideas with just a click.

You can use Shopify’s domain name generator tool. There are alternative options to find domain names or business name ideas – we’ll go through some of them later on.

Enter a topic such as “sports”, and it will suggest all the relevant names to register.

9. Check that it’s not taken or trademarked

Before registering a primary domain, it’s better to do research for trademarks to determine if someone already registered their business with the same name. There’s nothing worse than getting set on your business name idea and finding that it has a trademark.

Perform a search on uspto.gov to find out if the name is already trademarked. If it is registered, you should avoid the name, or else it can cost you a lot of money legally.

To simplify the process, you can use tools like Knowem. This tool shows if the name is available throughout over 500 social networks and the entire USPTO trademark database.

It’s also a good idea to use Shopify’s own Business Name Generator tool to check which names are already in use and should be avoided. Additionally, you can check the search engines to see if anything shows up in the results for your chosen online shop name.

10. Register the domain for your Shopify store before someone takes it

Once you figure out what the name for your Shopify store will be, you need to check the domain availability and register it immediately.

Because there are over 100,000 domains registered every day, so, someone may take your domain as well.

A domain name is like a property. Whoever buys first gets the land.

There are thousands of people searching for good domain names for their online stores, websites, or businesses. If you fail to register the domain that you spent days or weeks figuring out, you will need to start the whole process again.

So, we highly suggest you register a custom domain at least. It may cost only $10-$14 per year. And, of course, you can create an online store later at any time.

3 of the best free Shopify store name generators

When you’re looking for a business name generator there are plenty of choices – if you’re feeling uninspired these tools come up with auto-generated name ideas to help narrow it down whether you are a startup or you have a personal brand. Remember that it’s a creative process and can take time to settle on something you like.

Using these tools as online shop name generators doesn’t guarantee that someone else isn’t already using the name (so it’s essential to follow the steps above to ensure you don’t have the same business name.)

1. Shopify’s business name generator

Shopify has a business name generator – you enter a keyword in the search bar and it comes up with a shop name list of basic business name suggestions. The pro of this is that if something is not available on Shopify it will not show up in the results. The con is that it’s more basic than other offerings on the market and offers a long list of business names with no filters.

 2. BIZNAMEWIZ

This company name generator is powered by Artificial Intelligence. Biznamewiz offers several creative options (once you’ve clicked “Generate”) to find an online shop name including one word, two words, alternative spellings, and more. You can include exact keywords too. Because of these options, it’s easy to find a cool name idea for your Shopify store.

3. Looka

Looka is a great option to come up with a catchy business name because you can check the availability of online shop names and domains in one place with the added bonus of seeing logo ideas as well. Inspiration all in one place and would be great as a startup name generator because of this.

Find a Shopify store name and get started today

A good name will help your Shopify store stand out from the competition. It’s crucial to find a unique but memorable name that people can easily spell and remember. A custom domain is the best way to go to get exactly what you want. Once you’ve done that, remember that Tapfiliate has a quick and easy integration with Shopify so you can start your affiliate, influencer, and referral program quickly.

Hopefully, this guide will help you to choose a domain name for your Shopify store in a shorter time. Let us know which tips you found the most helpful!