First top-level domain to focus on the e-commerce market to be launched by Radix in April

Radix, the portfolio registry behind several new top-level domains including .site, .tech and .online today announced they are gearing up for the launch of the first Top-Level Domain (TLD) to focus on the e-commerce market – .STORE

A trillion dollar market, e-commerce grew at a healthy 20.9% in 2015 vs 2014. There are over 12 million e-commerce sites on the internet and over 650,000 that make at least $1,000 annually. Statistics also show that 40 percent of worldwide internet users (1billion+) have bought products or goods online and this numbers are projected to continuously grow.

“While the purpose for .store is specific to websites and platforms that offer products or services for sale online, the target market is global and highly diverse. We see a great fit for traditional mom and pop business as they make their way into selling online, as we do for modern start-ups with a commerce motive. The entire spectrum can look to find their ‘brandname.store’ which would be their perfect gateway to a dedicated web commerce site, or short URL to their internal commerce specific landing page. During the first few years, we see most demand coming from existing brands looking to use it as a short, clear and precise call-to-action in their marketing messages”, said Sandeep Ramchandani, VP and Business Head, Radix.

Currently, in the final stages of delegation .store will start Sunrise on 6th April. The TLD will follow the same rollout as Radix’s last 3 launches. The end date Sunrise will be followed by an Early Access Phase and .store will enter General Availability on 14th June, 2016.

Radix was one of the 7 contenders for the .store extension and won rights to it in a private auction against Uniregistry, Donuts, TLDH, Amazon and Google. Radix plans to leverage its massive Registrar channel which includes domain leaders like GoDaddy, 1&1, Namecheap, Domain.com, Tucows, Name.com to ensure the extension gets maximum visibility and reaches the customer at an attractive price point.

Radix believes the .store launch comes at a good time as Registrars have developed their new gTLD marketing, roll-out strategy and understood customer behavior.

As .store will be the first TLD to cater to the e-commerce market, Radix is geared to make the most of its first mover advantage and capture a strong market share.