E-commerce industry gets its own domain extension

LAS VEGAS -- Radix, the portfolio registry behind several new domain extensions including .site, .tech and .online, has launched the first extension specifically for e-commerce.

According to the company, .store is the first domain extension that caters exclusively to the e-commerce side of things on the Internet. The extension received more than 100 applications within the first hour of its first phase of launch, which is exclusively for trademark holders, from brands such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Nike, Chanel and HBO, to name a few.

"We're excited to be one of the first commerce platforms to offer the .store domain to our 275,000-plus merchants," said Brennan Loh, director of business development. "It opens up many creative opportunities for retailers to identify their site as an online shopping destination, helping to increase brand awareness and visibility.”

The e-commerce industry has been gaining worldwide momentum with over a billion buyers in 2016 -- a 20% raise from last year -- and over 12 million sellers -- half of which make at least $1,000 a year. But, Radix says, besides aiming to provide extensive brand visibility and a shorter URL to already prominent brands, .store is looking to cater to local small businesses, startups and mom and pop ventures alike, by promising them a URL that doesn’t make them compromise on their product name, while offering them greater recall.

Radix was one of seven companies that applied for the .store extension and won rights to it in a private auction against contenders including Amazon and Google.

At SHOPTALK 2016 happening this week in Las Vegas, .store is inviting attendees to apply for a .store domain name before it goes out to the general public on June 14.