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How to Do Effective PR for Ecommerce Brands: A Practical Guide
Public relations is one of the most underused growth tools available to ecommerce brands. While most Shopify merchants focus their marketing budgets on paid advertising and email, PR delivers something ads cannot buy: third-party credibility. A feature in a respected publication, a recommendation from a trusted journalist, or a mention in a curated gift guide carries more weight with consumers than any amount of paid promotion.
According to research from PR Lab, 70% of consumers prefer to learn about a brand through editorial content rather than advertising. And according to Reputation X, 85% of consumers are influenced by online reviews and peer recommendations. PR builds the kind of trust that converts browsers into buyers and first-time customers into loyal advocates.
This guide covers eight practical strategies for building an effective PR programme for your ecommerce brand, whether you are a Shopify startup looking for your first press feature or an established brand looking to scale your earned media presence.
Agency insight: the ecommerce brands we work with that grow fastest are those that treat PR as a consistent, ongoing activity rather than a one-off launch effort. A single press feature generates a traffic spike. A sustained PR programme builds brand authority that compounds over time, improving organic search rankings, conversion rates, and customer trust simultaneously.
Key Takeaways
- 70% of consumers prefer to learn about a brand through editorial content rather than advertising
- PR builds third-party credibility that paid advertising cannot replicate
- A strong press page, media kit, and founder story are prerequisites for effective media outreach
- Micro-influencer partnerships typically deliver better ROI than large influencer deals for ecommerce brands
- User-generated content is cost-effective, builds trust, and generates social proof that drives conversions
- PR results should be measured through media mentions, referral traffic, backlinks, and attributed sales, not just vanity metrics
Table of Contents
- 1. Define Your Brand Identity and Story
- 2. Build a Strong Digital Foundation First
- 3. Master Media Outreach
- 4. Build Strategic Influencer Partnerships
- 5. Leverage User-Generated Content
- 6. Establish Thought Leadership
- 7. Plan Campaigns Around Key Dates and Moments
- 8. Track and Measure PR Results
- How PR Supports SEO
- Why Matters Perspective
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Thoughts
1. Define Your Brand Identity and Story
Your PR efforts will only resonate if they are built on a clear, compelling brand identity. Journalists and editors receive hundreds of pitches daily. The ones that stand out are those with a clear answer to three questions: what does this brand stand for, who is it for, and why should my audience care?
Before you begin any outreach, be clear on your brand's core values and mission (what you stand for beyond selling products), your target audience (who you are trying to reach and what matters to them), your unique positioning (what makes you different from competitors selling similar products), and your founder story (the human narrative behind the brand, which is often the most compelling angle for journalists).
For ecommerce brands with a strong values proposition, such as sustainability, ethical sourcing, or community impact, PR is particularly powerful because these stories resonate with journalists and consumers alike. For guidance on communicating sustainability effectively, see our guide on how to build a sustainable Shopify store.
2. Build a Strong Digital Foundation First
PR drives people to your website. If your website is not ready to convert those visitors, the PR effort is wasted. Before investing in media outreach, ensure your foundations are solid.
Your website should have:
- A professional, conversion-optimised design that builds trust within seconds of arrival. For guidance, see our article on why your Shopify store design matters.
- Product pages with high-quality images, detailed descriptions, and visible customer reviews
- Fast page load times across all devices, particularly mobile
- A dedicated press page containing high-resolution product images available for download, your brand story and founder bio, key facts and figures about your business, and contact information for media enquiries
- Active, consistent social media profiles that reinforce your brand identity
Your SEO should be working so that when a journalist or their readers search for your brand name after seeing a feature, your store appears at the top of Google. For a comprehensive SEO guide, see our Shopify SEO guide.
3. Master Media Outreach
Securing media coverage in relevant publications is one of the highest-impact PR activities for ecommerce brands. A feature in the right publication drives qualified traffic, earns high-authority backlinks, and positions your brand as credible in your category.
How to approach media outreach effectively:
Build a media kit. Create a downloadable document or page containing high-resolution product images (both on white background and lifestyle shots), your brand story and founding narrative, key statistics (revenue milestones, customer numbers, sustainability metrics), founder bio and headshot, and any previous press coverage. Make this easily accessible from your press page.
Research and target the right journalists. Focus on reporters, editors, and bloggers who cover your specific product category or industry. A targeted pitch to one relevant journalist is worth more than a mass email to a hundred generic contacts. Use tools like Prowly or Roxhill to find relevant UK journalists and track their recent coverage.
Craft personalised pitches. Reference the journalist's recent work. Explain specifically why your product is relevant to their audience. Lead with the story angle, not the product. Journalists write stories, not advertisements. Your product is the supporting evidence for a story, not the story itself.
Timing matters. Pitch gift guides three to four months before the relevant holiday (start pitching Christmas gift guides in August or September). Tie product launches to cultural moments, seasonal trends, or news cycles that are already on the journalist's radar.
Follow up politely. A single follow-up email three to five days after your initial pitch is appropriate. More than that risks damaging the relationship.
4. Build Strategic Influencer Partnerships
Influencer marketing blurs the line between PR and advertising, but when done well, it delivers the authenticity of earned media with the targeting precision of paid media. For ecommerce brands, micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers) typically deliver better ROI than large influencers because their audiences are more engaged, their recommendations feel more genuine, and their rates are significantly more affordable.
How to build effective influencer partnerships:
- Prioritise alignment over reach. An influencer with 15,000 highly engaged followers in your exact niche is more valuable than one with 500,000 followers in a broad lifestyle category.
- Use tools like Upfluence or Heepsy to find influencers in your niche and evaluate their engagement rates
- Offer free products for review rather than paying for scripted posts where possible. Authentic, unpaid recommendations carry more credibility than paid partnerships.
- For paid collaborations, negotiate performance-based compensation (commission per sale using unique discount codes) rather than flat fees where your budget allows
- Give influencers creative freedom. Overly scripted content performs worse than authentic recommendations because audiences can tell the difference.
- Track ROI through unique discount codes or UTM links attributed to each influencer
5. Leverage User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is one of the most cost-effective PR and marketing tools available. When customers share photos, videos, and reviews of your products, they create social proof that is more persuasive than any content you could produce yourself.
How to encourage and leverage UGC:
- Create a branded hashtag and encourage customers to use it when sharing product photos on social media
- Run contests and giveaways that require customers to post photos with your products as an entry requirement. For guidance on running effective giveaways, see our article on how to increase Shopify conversions.
- Send post-purchase emails asking customers to share their experience on social media and leave a review
- Repost and feature customer content on your own social channels (with permission), which rewards the customer with visibility and encourages others to share
- Display UGC prominently on your product pages alongside professional product photography. Real-world images from real customers build purchase confidence.
6. Establish Thought Leadership
Positioning your brand's founder or team as experts in your industry builds credibility that extends beyond any single product. Thought leadership generates media attention, speaking invitations, and inbound links, all of which strengthen your brand's authority.
Practical thought leadership tactics for ecommerce brands:
- Write guest articles or opinion pieces for industry publications and blogs relevant to your product category
- Share data and insights from your own customer base (anonymised), which journalists and industry analysts find valuable for their own reporting
- Participate in industry podcasts as a guest, which builds authority and generates backlinks from podcast show notes
- Host or participate in webinars on topics relevant to your audience
- Comment on industry news and trends through your blog and social media, establishing your brand as a voice worth following
7. Plan Campaigns Around Key Dates and Moments
Tying PR campaigns to calendar events and cultural moments gives journalists a reason to cover your brand now rather than "someday." The key is choosing moments that genuinely align with your brand and audience rather than forcing a connection to every trending topic.
High-impact calendar moments for ecommerce PR:
- Gift guide season: Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day. Pitch three to four months ahead.
- Awareness dates aligned with your brand values: Earth Day for sustainable brands, Veganuary for plant-based products, Mental Health Awareness Week for wellness brands
- Product launches: time launches to coincide with seasonal demand or industry events
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday: pitch unique angles rather than just discount announcements, such as brands doing anti-Black Friday campaigns or donating a percentage of sales
- Brand milestones: anniversary dates, customer number milestones, or expansion announcements give journalists a news hook
Why Matters perspective: the brands that get the best PR coverage around seasonal moments are those that pitch early and offer a genuine story angle. "Our products are on sale for Black Friday" is not a story. "We are donating 100% of Black Friday profits to ocean cleanup" is. Journalists want stories that interest their readers, not product announcements.
8. Track and Measure PR Results
PR is harder to measure than paid advertising, but it is not unmeasurable. Tracking the right metrics allows you to refine your strategy and demonstrate ROI.
Key PR metrics to track:
- Media mentions: how many publications featured your brand, and how relevant are they to your audience?
- Referral traffic: use Google Analytics 4 to track traffic from press coverage. Create UTM-tagged links where possible.
- Backlinks earned: every media mention that includes a link to your store improves your domain authority and SEO. Track new backlinks using tools like Ahrefs or Google Search Console.
- Social media engagement: track mentions, shares, and follower growth attributed to PR activity
- Sales attributed to PR: use unique discount codes, landing pages, or UTM parameters to attribute sales directly to specific PR campaigns
- Brand search volume: monitor whether branded search queries (people searching for your brand name) increase after PR activity. This is measurable in Google Search Console.
Use Google Analytics 4 for traffic and sales attribution, Google Search Console for branded search volume and backlinks, and social media platform analytics for engagement metrics. Review PR performance monthly and adjust your strategy based on which activities and publications deliver the strongest results.
How PR Supports SEO
PR and SEO are not separate disciplines. They reinforce each other directly. Every media feature that includes a link to your store is a backlink that strengthens your domain authority and improves your rankings for every page on your site. Every increase in brand awareness generates more branded searches, which Google interprets as a trust signal. Every piece of coverage that references your products creates a citation that AI search engines may reference in their answers.
This is why PR should be considered part of your broader SEO strategy rather than a standalone activity. The backlinks earned through genuine media coverage are significantly more valuable than any links you could buy or build through other means, because they come from authoritative, trusted domains that Google already values.
For a full guide to Shopify SEO, including how content and backlinks affect rankings, see our Shopify SEO guide.
Why Matters Perspective
PR is the traffic and trust-building channel that most ecommerce brands underinvest in. Paid advertising delivers immediate, measurable results, which makes it easy to justify the budget. PR delivers results that are harder to measure in the short term but more valuable in the long term: brand authority, editorial backlinks, third-party credibility, and the kind of trust that paid ads cannot create.
The brands we work with that build the strongest market positions are those that combine a well-optimised Shopify store with consistent PR activity. The store converts the traffic. The PR generates traffic and trust that paid channels cannot replicate. Together, they create a compounding growth engine that becomes more powerful over time.
If you want to ensure your Shopify store is ready to convert the traffic your PR generates, our free SEO audit covers technical performance, on-page optimisation, and conversion readiness. Email us and we would be happy to take a look.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does PR cost for an ecommerce brand? PR costs range from zero (DIY outreach using free tools and your own time) to £2,000 to £10,000+ per month for a retained PR agency. Many ecommerce brands start with DIY PR by building a media kit, creating a press page, and pitching relevant journalists directly. As the brand grows and the volume of opportunities increases, hiring a specialist PR agency or freelancer becomes more cost-effective.
How long does it take for PR to show results? PR is a medium to long-term strategy. Individual press features can generate immediate traffic spikes, but building a consistent stream of coverage typically takes three to six months of sustained outreach. The SEO benefits of PR (backlinks, domain authority) compound over time and are often the most commercially valuable outcome.
Is PR or advertising more effective for ecommerce? They serve different purposes. Advertising delivers immediate, scalable, measurable traffic. PR delivers third-party credibility, editorial backlinks, and brand authority that advertising cannot replicate. The most effective ecommerce marketing strategies use both: advertising for immediate sales and PR for long-term brand building and SEO.
How do I find journalists who cover my product category? Use media databases like Prowly or Roxhill to search by topic, publication, and journalist. Follow relevant journalists on social media to understand what they cover. Read the publications your target audience reads and identify the journalists who write about products or brands like yours. Start with a small, highly targeted list rather than a large, generic one.
Should I hire a PR agency or do it myself? For early-stage ecommerce brands with limited budgets, DIY PR is a viable starting point. Build your media kit, create your press page, and pitch a small number of highly relevant journalists yourself. As your brand grows and you have more products, more stories, and more opportunities to pitch, a specialist PR agency or freelancer can handle the volume more efficiently and bring established journalist relationships that accelerate coverage.
How does PR help with SEO? Every media feature that includes a link to your store is a backlink from an authoritative domain, which directly improves your SEO rankings. PR also increases branded search volume (people searching for your brand name), which Google interprets as a trust signal. For a full guide to how SEO works for Shopify stores, see our Shopify SEO guide.
Final Thoughts
PR for ecommerce brands is about more than visibility. It is about creating authentic connections, building third-party credibility, and earning the kind of trust that no amount of paid advertising can buy. A single feature in the right publication can drive more qualified traffic than a month of paid social ads, and the backlink it generates continues to strengthen your SEO for years.
Start with the fundamentals: a clear brand story, a professional press page, and targeted outreach to the journalists who matter most to your audience. Be consistent, be patient, and always lead with the story rather than the product. The brands that succeed with PR are those that give journalists something worth writing about, not just something to sell.