The customer journey in marketing describes the customer’s path, through touchpoints, to their choice to purchase a product. A client doesn’t normally decide to buy a product immediately after discovering it for the very first time. Usually, consumers look at an item or a brand numerous times prior to purchase, both online and offline. These are known in advertising as touchpoints.
It is extremely challenging to map the customer journey in offline marketing because it is generally difficult to determine where each site visitor discovered a shop or a product. Feasible factors can include recommendations from friends or family, a leaflet, or a newspaper advertisement. On the Internet, nevertheless, the contact points of any prospective consumers for a product and service can be tracked explicitly with suitable monitoring tools, even throughout different channels.
Customer journey example #
An amateur handyman discovers a new drill on the Internet, and he quite likes that tool. His interest is growing. He continues to research the device further on the Internet and reads about other amateur handyman’s experience with this tool, i.e., he is looking for social proof. Finally, a handyman visits the manufacturer’s website to find out where he can buy a new drill, goes to an online store and orders the product.
Touchpoints #
Various sorts of media can be considered communication and also contact factors. There are offline advertising and marketing media such as:
- TV advertisements
- Radio shows
- Newspaper clips
- Advertisements on billboards
Nonetheless, these forms of advertising can not be tracked. Online touchpoints are suitable for digital marketing, such as blog posts, banner ads, forums, etc. They can be made visible in the form of a customer journey.
Phases of the customer journey #
There are various techniques regarding exactly how to separate the customer journey phases. However, they all share one thing; it can be thought that the choice to buy is not typically made right away. Initially, the target audience needs to be alerted about the product. In the following step, passion for the product has to be created. Only a long time after the information was obtained will a wish for the item develop, which preferably leads to a conversion. The concept resembles the AIDA model. The envisioned activity, or a conversion, does not necessarily need to be a purchase or order. Even the registration for an e-newsletter or asking for information can be a reasonable objective, depending on the individual goal.
Purpose of the customer journey #
The objective of assessing and mapping the consumer trip is to figure out more about consumer actions. As a result, the customer journey can be better designed, resulting in a boost in the conversion rate. The relationship between different touchpoints can additionally be examined. Cross-domain monitoring or cross-device tracking can assist in analyzing or mapping the journey. Cross-device tracking is a valuable tool for acquiring insights and makes it possible to discover what device the potential client used to access the site and in what order.
Depending on the readily available data, it may be challenging to determine which touchpoint resulted in a conversion. Every touchpoint typically contributes to the client’s acquisition decision. If the consumer hadn’t become aware of the item at the very first touchpoint, they might never have learned about it in any way. Every touchpoint contributes to a degree to the final conversion, and this is called attribution modeling. The customer journey analysis can cause problems in online marketing due to information defense. The customer journey can not be reconstructed explicitly if a customer deletes their cookies or uses a device that avoids monitoring. The mix of various information is just allowed in specific situations.
4 stages of e-commerce customer journey #
Phase 1: Discovery #
The consumer learns about your product. At this stage, the business can discover where clients are originating from, what brought them to the company website, which pages they’re landing on, and the path that took them from one page to another. This is an opportunity to discover what brand-new consumers require and what they are looking for on your website.
Phase 2: Interest #
The consumers see something that they like, so they begin getting more info, often on the official website. At this phase, management should try to find out how to minimize bounce rates on primary web pages and to obtain prospects to browse even more items. In addition, this phase offers an opportunity to find out how to help clients find what they’re searching for.
Phase 3: Intent #
The customer adds items to a wishlist or a shopping cart, yet they’re still just considering the purchase. This stage is probably where a new advertising channel should get in the mix: the email list. At this stage you can capture the addresses of individuals interested but not prepared to buy, so you can remind them of the missed opportunities and further communicate about the products to increase the likelihood of a purchase.
Phase 4: Purchase #
Additionally referred to as the ‘conversion’ stage, this is when the consumer buys an item. At this phase, the e-commerce retail business can start constructing a long-term relationship with new customers and recognize chances to better serve them. This part of the journey is also a great time to run a post-purchase study and get some brief comments about what worked (or didn’t) for individuals who have just finished purchasing.
Phase 5: involvement #
The consumer comes back for even more – they may acquire again, be involved on social media, register for the e-newsletter, check out articles, etc. At this point, the business should tend to increase the desire for new customers to be engaged with your brand. This stage also presents a chance to make the customer a brand advocate.
Do you want to learn more about e-commerce? Continue reading about → Omnichannel e-commerce.
