On the Net, brand is more than just a graphic design. It represents an interactive experience and the online consumer gets this experience through your Web store.

What makes a good online brand? The same thing that makes a good interactive Web site. A good user experience.

Your brand must target a specific audience or market niche. But just as important, your brand or your Web site must be usable. A pretty logo is not a brand on the Web. It's the overall user experience your shopper has with your site. This includes the look and feel of the site and its ease of navigation.

It's easy to create an adequate eCommerce Web site. What you want to do is create a great online brand that customers will enjoy shopping at and come back to again and again. And to do that you need to keep a set of Web essentials in mind.

In future articles I will discuss these Web site essentials.