E-shop buyers visit several e-shops, forums, comments, social media, etc. before making a purchase. They have unlimited access to products, offers and services. Since there is no shortage of anything, the shopping experience has become even more important than the product itself.
It is increasingly important for marketers to understand how consumers arrive at a purchase and make purchase decisions. One common method for doing this comes from the toolbox of UX or user experience designers, and that’s customer journey mapping. What does it represent and is it even worth talking about a typical customer journey anymore?
What is a customer journey?
The customer journey is a series of contacts between the consumer and the company, each of which evokes either positive, negative or neutral experiences in the consumer.
Customer journey mapping, the idea of research and design, is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer and find out how they reach the e-store, what is most important to them when searching for products, making purchases, where they get stuck and nervous, where they leave the activity unfinished, etc.
The customer journey helps to visualize the goals, needs, feelings and barriers of the customers throughout the purchase of a particular product or service.
What is the shortcoming?
Contacts between the customer and the brand at different stages of the customer’s journey are called touch points – these are the consumer’s indirect or direct contacts with the company. They form a complete user or customer experience.
The goal of designing and fine-tuning each stage and touchpoint is to provide something that will help capture, retain, and motivate the journey.
The more touch points there are, the more difficult it is to design the corresponding map or journey – but the more necessary it is.
Four typical stages of the e-commerce customer journey:
Traditionally, the customer’s purchase journey has been mapped using four stages.
Discovery and inspiration stage
At the very first stage, the buyer is struck by inspiration, whether it is a cool pendant light seen in the village, a photo of food seen on someone’s Instagram, an advertisement that popped up while surfing the web, or an article with an interesting title on a news portal.
At this stage, the most important thing is to ensure the visibility of your store and easy accessibility to what is offered.
Selection and comparison stage
The customer enters the second stage already knowing what he wants to buy. He starts comparing different options, looking for product discounts, latest models, and good deals. He remembers some options or adds them to his list. Those items that are more seriously considered are added to the online shopping cart – not necessarily for purchase, but rather for testing: what’s the threshold for free shipping? How much will it cost including shipping? Can I get it cheaper elsewhere?
At this stage, for example, you could give recommendations that simplify choices.
Stage of making a purchase
Once the decision is made, the customer wants to complete the order quickly. Here it is important to ensure that the whole process is as simple as possible and that there are no misunderstandings, unnecessary steps or technical problems when filling out the form or paying. Since the customer is still on the website, there is still time to display different products to trigger an impulse buy.
For example: Buyers of this product also bought this and this.
Loyalty stage
If the customer is satisfied with the shopping experience, he is willing to come back in the future. If he already knows the store and its offers and has not had any problems before, he can become a regular customer. At this stage, personalized options such as “we recommend”, “recently viewed” etc. can be displayed to users who have visited the store before.
Behavioral models of different users and three types of customer journeys:
- Impulsive journeys are where the consumer spends less time searching for information and relies on primary sources of information, such as past experiences, recommendations or tried-and-tested products. In impulsive journeys, the decision is made quickly based on mood or previous exposure to the brand.
- Balance journeys often start with a recommendation, whether it’s influence from friends, influencers, or traditional media. These journeys go through a longer search and evaluation phase: the reliability of the information is checked and compared to other sources before making a purchase decision.
- Also, a rational consumer goes through a long pre-purchase stage on his journey and gathers information from various sources. What he finds may not be immediately relevant to him, but when the want and need arise, he can easily find and reassess this information again.
Why is customer journey analysis important?
Adopting a strategy based on customer journey analysis primarily helps to fulfill two goals:
- design a smooth and consistent customer experience at all stages or touch points. Avoid a situation where the price is 49 in the ad but 69 when you get to the store.
- Increasingly, the focus is also on personalizing the customer journey, i.e. trying to change the contact, i.e., the message or product to be delivered, to meet the needs of this particular customer.
There is no such thing as a “typical” customer journey?
Google research and The Behavioral Architects’ Behavioral Sciences experts have explored the e-consumer’s decision-making processes in depth. They’ve found the “typical customer journey” to be a bit of a lie. Touchpoints are not a logical sequence, but rather an interwoven network. This is different for each consumer and we cannot control it.
They emphasize that customer experience is a multidimensional construct that includes cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensory, and social components. Increasingly, the marketer must focus on how consumer reactions to touchpoints mix with everything else. What they know, think and feel influences what they decide to buy.
Each customer journey is unique
Obviously, there are scenarios where the journey can still be straightforward and simple: for example, when a buyer needs new dust bags for a vacuum cleaner.
But in general, each customer’s journey becomes more and more unpredictable.
Some people start comparing products and prices relatively quickly. Others take days, weeks, or even months to get from the first discovery phase to the next.
Despite the depth of digitally available data, the e-shopper’s purchase path increasingly feels like a moving target.
Continuous changes and developments in mobile technology, social media and search algorithms are also constantly reshaping consumer interactions with brands and online stores.
Increasingly, consumers are taking much more fragmented journeys that span multiple channels.
And that means no merchant has reached their full potential until they’ve built a strong presence at every possible touch point and twist.
The more comprehensive a store’s digital marketing strategy and market presence, the more likely it will be able to impress a potential buyer at any stage.
How to do it
How to make the journey more efficient for each customer
Customer journey innovation means continuous analysis and experiments that help identify ways to provide more value to the customer.
Each step (touch point) should be optimized so that customers do not leave the process. Now more than ever, the customer expects this experience to be unique and personal for him and meet his needs.
Product page to landing page
Visitors should no longer be expected to start their online purchase from the store’s home page and then navigate to the product page. Rather, today, ads and social media posts lead directly to the product page of the respective online stores.
Therefore, product pages are now increasingly being designed as complete landing pages, which allow users to delve into the respective products and product range, but also give a sense of the brand, provide emotions and create a desire to make a purchase right away on the same page.
Automation
Automation can digitize steps that were previously done manually; e.g. buying a product is one click away in many modern stores.
Personalization
Personalization is based on previous interactions (which products have been viewed).
Instructive and supporting texts and design elements
Instructive and supportive texts and design elements help the customer move towards the next step. The purpose of UX design is to direct users to desired actions and reduce mental effort with various techniques (familiar context).
Suggestions and feedback
Gathering suggestions and feedback cannot be overemphasized. 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Even a product with negative reviews sells better than a product with no reviews. Star ratings above 3 increase the likelihood of purchase.
In summary
There can be thousands of paths for a consumer, and each customer has their own unique set of touch points.
There is nothing you can do with one simple hack. The basic truth is that the more an e-store uses various digital marketing opportunities, the greater the probability of reaching a potential customer at each of his stages – regardless of how he got there at the time.
