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Ask yourself: do you already know how your customers find yourself in your store?
If not, you’re not doing it right.
Customers don’t appear in your online store able to spend money by sheer luck. Their journey to purchase consists of different stages, and it may differ a lot for businesses in different niches. Understanding that journey is key to attracting, engaging, and retaining customers like a pro.
If you desire to increase your possibilities of converting visitors into loyal customers, you’ll want to understand what the customer journey is, the way it works, and find out how to optimize it.
In this comprehensive article, we’ll explore all the pieces you’ll want to learn about improving customer journey in ecommerce, from customer journey mapping to analytics and all the pieces in between.
What Is a Customer Journey?
Customer journey (also generally known as buyer’s journey) refers to a customer’s path from initial awareness to final purchase and beyond. It’s the entire process a customer goes through when interacting together with your brand, including getting acquainted together with your brand, browsing your website, researching your products, making a purchase, and
In a nutshell, a buyer’s journey is the steps any customer takes before making a purchase decision. Consider the last time you bought something. You almost certainly followed a process just like this:
- You realize you’ve a problem and need a solution. In the customer journey, that is called the awareness stage.
- After understanding the problem, you researched some possible solutions. We call this the consideration stage because that is the point where you get thinking about options and shopping around.
- After narrowing down your list to one or two solutions, you seek for the best place to buy them. That is the decision stage.
That is the buyer’s journey, as it was first described in 1978. At that point, it was a relatively easy concept. Customers entered the journey from the awareness stage and exited at the decision stage. The complete journey was expected to be linear, with customers moving in a straight path from one stage to one other.
What Are the Customer Journey Stages?
In comparison with the customer journey described above, the modern buyer’s journey is very different.
Why, it’s possible you’ll ask?
Your customers have access to the world’s knowledge at their fingertips. They don’t have any real reason to follow the linear journey described above. They’ll start the purchase process, spend a few weeks considering the solution, and then determine to not buy anything at all — we’ve all been there.
Although the three discrete stages — awareness, consideration, and decision (or purchase) — still exist in this journey, customers go through them in a staggered,
Plus, you would possibly already know that selling to an existing customer is cheaper than attracting a recent one. Meaning it could be impractical to not consider customer retention in your buyer’s journey.
While every customer journey is unique, there are some common stages that newest customers go through. These stages include awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy:
- In the awareness stage, customers turn into aware of your brand and products.
- In the consideration stage, they evaluate your offerings and compare them to alternatives.
- In the purchase stage, they make a buying decision.
- In the retention stage, they arrive back for repeat purchases and interact together with your brand.
- In the advocacy stage, they recommend your brand to others and turn into loyal fans.
Understanding the customer journey is crucial for any ecommerce business since it helps you discover the opportunities for improvement in the customer experience. By optimizing the customer journey, you’ll be able to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, sales.
Customer journey stages in ecommerce (Image source: Omnisend)
Example of a Buyer’s Journey
Let’s imagine you run an online store selling laptops. Your audience is
A customer lands on your site by looking for recent Windows laptops on Google. Here, they discover a blog post about recently launched laptops.
Using this blog post, they make a list of different laptops offered by different brands. Because they’ve heard a lot about Dell, they decided to focus their search on Dell laptops. They type in recent Dell Windows laptops on their browser and discover a list of Dell laptops. They appear at their prices and find the Dell model that may be perfect for them.
Now that they’ve made a selection, they need validation. Their next search is for Dell [model] laptop reviews. This question takes him to your blog, where they find an
Finally, after deciding that that is the right laptop for them, they need to find the best deal for it. They type in Dell [model] laptop coupon codes.
After finding a coupon code, they seek for buy Dell [model] laptop online. Your site shows up as considered one of the results. They recognize your website name because they’ve had multiple positive interactions together with your brand before. Due to the positive brand equity you’ve built up, you find yourself making a sale.
After acquiring a customer, you’d need to retain them. You do this by sending them an email after a few weeks asking about their experience and offering additional suggestions for using the laptop. This results in customer satisfaction and potential advocacy through
You don’t stop there because you desire to make your customer a loyal fan. You proceed to nurture the relationship through personalized emails and exclusive offers for repeat purchases. By providing an excellent customer journey, you switch a
As you’ll be able to see, the customer journey is not nearly making a sale; it’s about creating positive interactions and constructing
An example of a customer journey in retail (Image source: Delighted)
Why Is the Customer Journey Vital?
Understanding your customer journey is crucial for the success of what you are promoting. Quite than aggressively promoting your products, you’ll be able to effectively attract customers by guiding them through each stage of their journey.
Other advantages of customer journey include the following:
- Increased brand awareness and recognition: By providing a seamless and positive experience, customers usually tend to remember and recommend your brand to others. This results in increased brand awareness and recognition.
- Differentiating your brand from competitors: In today’s competitive market, having a unique and positive customer journey can assist differentiate your brand from competitors. This will provide you with a competitive edge and attract more customers.
- Increased customer lifetime value: By specializing in the retention and advocacy stages of the customer journey, you’ll be able to increase the lifetime value of your customers. Loyal customers usually tend to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to others, resulting in increased revenue.
- Optimizing marketing strategies: The client journey helps you understand which marketing channels are best at attracting potential customers and converting them into loyal fans.
We’ll show you find out how to accomplish this below.
What Is a Customer Journey Map?
A customer journey map is a visual representation of the steps your customers go through when interacting together with your brand. This helps you understand and track the entire process from initial contact to purchase and beyond.
UXPressia analyzed the data on customer journey maps and ranked the layers in keeping with their popularity
What Is Customer Journey Mapping?
Customer journey mapping involves creating visual representations of the entire customer journey, including various touchpoints where customers engage together with your brand. Moreover, it entails understanding their emotions, behaviors, and motivations at different stages.
The goal of the customer journey mapping process is to gain a deep understanding of the customer’s experience so you’ll be able to improve it at every step.
To create a customer journey map, you should utilize a customer journey map template or customize your individual. Some key elements to include in a customer journey map are buyer personas, touchpoints, pain points, opportunities, and goals.
Customer Personas
Customer personas are fictional representations of your goal customers. They include demographic information, behaviors, motivations, and pain points.
Creating buyer personas helps you understand your customer’s needs and tailor your content to meet them.
Customer Touchpoints
Customer journey touchpoints are all of the points at which a customer interacts together with your brand. This includes each online and offline interactions reminiscent of social media, email marketing, customer support, etc.
Customer Pain Points
Pain points are obstacles or frustrations that customers can experience along the journey. These include anything from a slow website to poor customer support.
Opportunities
Opportunities are areas where your brand can improve and make the customer experience higher. Identifying opportunities helps you prioritize your efforts and resources.
Goals
Goals represent what your customers hope to achieve at each stage of the customer journey. These can include finding a solution, getting their questions answered, or receiving support.
Best Practices for Mapping Your Customer Journey
You’ll be able to’t improve something if you don’t have it. So, if you’ve never created a customer journey map, it’s time to do so.
Listed below are some best practices for mapping your customer’s journey:
Create Your Buyer Persona
To map the customer’s journey, you’ll want to research and analyze your customers’ behaviors, motivations, and pain points. That’s where buyer personas are available handy.
A buyer persona is a fictional customer that embodies the demographics and psychographics of your average customer. This customer persona serves as a constant reminder to align every aspect of your customer journey map with the right audience.
For instance, if you sell
It would help to conduct some user research when creating your buyer persona. For instance, you’ll be able to survey customers and take interviews.
To gather feedback from consumers who’re interested by buying your products and services, goal those that have either engaged together with your company or are meaning to do so. This fashion, you’ll be able to get accurate details about your audience’s needs and preferences.
Discover Your Touchpoints
Next, you’ll must discover all of the touchpoints where customers interact together with your brand. To do this, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and take into consideration every possible way they may come across or engage with what you are promoting.
99% of consumers research purchases online before going to a store, at least most of the time. So it’s pretty likely that your consumers do some online research, too. Nonetheless, don’t forget to use the data out of your customer and market research. It will offer you a list of all of the touchpoints your customers are currently using.
For instance, your customer’s touchpoints online may include:
- Looking for products on Google
- Visiting your website
- Reading reviews on social media
- Seeing your Facebook ads.
As for an offline customer touchpoint, this may include:
- Visiting your physical store
- Visiting your booth at the market or event
- Calling your customer support.
Keep in mind that each touchpoint needs to be evaluated based on its impact and importance to the overall customer journey.
Discover Pain Points and Opportunities
Once you’ve identified all of the touchpoints, it’s time to search for pain points and opportunities for each of them. This involves analyzing customer feedback and complaints and using behavior analytics tools to discover areas where your brand can improve and provide a higher experience.
For instance, if you notice many website visitors are dropping off at the checkout page, they might be facing a pain point that should be addressed as soon as possible. If you furthermore mght see a surge in customer queries on social media but slow response times out of your customer support team, this might be one other area of improvement.
Document the Customer Journey
Once you’ve identified all of the touchpoints, it’s time to put them in order and map out the customer journey. Start with the awareness stage and document each step until they turn into a loyal customer.
Be certain that to include the emotions, behaviors, and motivations at each stage. This will provide you with a clear understanding of how your customers are feeling and what they need at each step of their journey.
The technique of mapping the customer journey stays speculative until you really implement it. By doing so, you’ll gain firsthand insights into potential
Constantly Review and Improve
Keep in mind that the customer journey is not static — it’s continuously evolving. That’s why it’s essential to review and improve your customer journey map constantly. This will involve conducting regular customer surveys, analyzing data, and making essential adjustments to ensure a seamless experience for your customers.
Reviewing your customer journey recurrently, for example, quarterly, will aid you discover gaps and opportunities for further improving your customer journey.
Customer Journey Mapping Examples
To aid you higher understand the concept, let’s have a look at some customer journey map examples from various industries.
Customer Journey Map Example for Retail
A customer journey map for a retail store encompasses various touchpoints that customers encounter during their shopping experience. These customer touchpoints may include browsing products online, visiting the physical store, exploring different sections, trying on clothes in the fitting rooms, and finally making a purchase.
Throughout this journey, customers may experience each positive and negative facets. Pain points could arise from encountering long checkout lines or interacting with unfriendly staff members, while positive facets could include finding helpful product recommendations, receiving excellent customer support, or discovering personalized offers tailored to their preferences.
Customer Journey Map Example for Travel
For a travel company, the customer journey begins with researching destinations, where customers explore different options and gather information to make informed decisions.
Once the desired destination is chosen, the next step involves booking flights and accommodations, ensuring that each aspect of the trip is
Finally, the journey concludes with the
Along this journey, there could also be pain points that travelers encounter. These could include limited flight options, which may restrict flexibility and convenience, or unexpected delays that disrupt travel plans.
Customer Journey Map Example for Banking
A bank’s customer journey encompasses a series of touchpoints that customers encounter throughout their banking experience. These customer touchpoints could include activities reminiscent of opening an account online, visiting a branch for
Nonetheless, it is vital to discover and address potential pain points that customers may encounter during these touchpoints. For instance, pain points could arise from complicated online account setup processes or long wait times experienced at the branch.
As you’ll be able to see, each industry could have different touchpoints and pain points. That’s why it’s essential to create an accurate customer journey map specific to what you are promoting and constantly improve it based on data and customer feedback.
Of course, the examples we provided are quite simplified versions of customer journey maps. Ideally, your customer journey map needs to be detailed and consider not only the specifics of what you are promoting but additionally different goal customer personas.
To make it easier to map your customer journey, you should utilize templates — more on that below.
The way to Improve Your Customer Journey Map
Now that you’ve a higher understanding of the customer journey map and its importance, listed below are some recommendations on find out how to improve it.
Select the Right Customer Journey Map Templates
There are numerous templates available for making a customer journey map. They differ in complexity, design, and approach. Some customer journey templates are higher for visualizing a customer’s emotions, while others give attention to touchpoints and pain points. It’s crucial to select a template that most accurately fits what you are promoting needs and goals.
Listed below are a few examples of common customer journey map templates:
Current State Customer Journey Map Template
That is considered one of the most typical sorts of customer journey maps. They aid you see and understand what your customers are going through — their actions, thoughts, and emotions once they interact together with your company. This beneficial insight is used to enhance the customer journey constantly.
Download a current state customer experience map template here.
Day-in-the-Life Customer Journey Map Template
These customer journey maps show what your customers go through in their day by day activities, including their actions, thoughts, and emotions, whether or not they involve your brand and more. This sort of customer journey map provides a broader perspective into your customers’ lives and helps discover their
Here’s a visual representation and a template for
Future State Customer Journey Map Template
These customer journey maps provide insights into the actions, thoughts, and emotions that your customers will experience during their future interactions together with your company. When using this customer journey map, consider their current interactions together with your brand.
Use these kinds of customer journey maps to visualize your vision and establish strategic goals that drive what you are promoting forward.
Here’s a future state example of customer journey map templates.
Service Blueprint Customer Journey Map Template
These customer journey maps start with a simplified version of considered one of the map styles mentioned above. They then add the key elements that contribute to delivering a remarkable experience, reminiscent of people, policies, technologies, and processes. These maps provide beneficial insights into optimizing customer experiences and enhancing overall satisfaction.
Service blueprints help uncover the aspects driving current customer journeys and map out steps for future journeys. It will aid you make informed decisions to enhance your offerings.
You’ll be able to download a service blueprint template here.
Test Customer Journey Mapping Tools
There are several digital tools on the market to aid you create a customer journey map. These tools could make the process more efficient and effective by allowing you to collaborate together with your team easily, customize your map, and integrate data.
Some popular customer journey mapping tools include:
UXPressia
This tool includes various templates for different industries, making it easier to start mapping your customer journey immediately.
You’ll be able to seek for the template you would like on UXPressia website
Smaply
This tool offers a
Custellence
This customer journey mapping software helps teams create visual representations of customer journeys. It offers various templates and collaboration features.
Lucidchart
That is a popular diagramming and visualization tool that features a customer journey mapping feature. It comes with
Making a customer journey map in Lucidchart
Whichever tool you select, ensure that it suits your specific needs and helps you create a detailed and effective customer journey map.
Pay Attention to Customer Journey Analytics
Once you’ve created your customer journey map, it’s essential to track and analyze data to discover areas of improvement. Customer journey analytics can aid you understand customer behavior, preferences, and pain points throughout the entire journey.
This step is crucial for finding the areas of improvement in your existing customer journey and for gaining a deeper understanding of the customer lifecycle. That’s why it’s value expanding on this topic — so keep reading!
What Is Customer Journey Analytics?
We’ve already discussed the importance of recurrently reviewing and improving your customer journey maps. That brings us to the next point — how do you already know that it’s time to improve your customer journey map? That’s where the customer journey analytics is available in.
Customer journey analytics are a set of metrics and tools that aid you track, measure, and optimize the customer journey. By analyzing customer data, reminiscent of website behavior, demographics, and purchase history, you’ll be able to discover patterns and trends that make clear how customers interact together with your brand.
Customer Journey Metrics
Customer journey analytics encompasses a range of metrics that provide beneficial insights into customer behavior and preferences. Some examples of these metrics include:
- conversion rates, which measure the proportion of visitors who take a desired motion,
- bounce rates that indicate the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing just one page,
- time on page, which gauges the average duration visitors spend on a page,
- cart abandonment rate, which reflects the percentage of customers who add items to their cart but do not complete the purchase,
- customer lifetime value, which estimates the total revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship with a business,
- customer satisfaction scores that measure the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction customers have with a product or service.
Collectively, these metrics contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey and help businesses optimize their strategies for higher customer experiences and outcomes. By analyzing these metrics, you’ll be able to discover areas where customers are dropping out of the journey and take motion to improve those stages.
Customer Journey Analytics Tools
Just like customer journey mapping tools, there are also various analytics tools available to aid you track and analyze data related to the customer journey. Some popular options include:
- Google Analytics — That is a free web analytics tool that provides insights into website traffic and user behavior. It includes features reminiscent of conversion tracking, demographic segmentation, and goal setting.
- Kissmetrics — This tool focuses on providing insights into customer behavior and retention. It offers features reminiscent of cohort evaluation, funnel reports, and A/B testing.
- Mixpanel — That is a popular user analytics tool that helps track user interactions with web sites and apps. It’s primarily used for tracking customer behavior.
Also, don’t forget to make the most out of the tools you already use. For instance, your email marketing platform reports might offer you insights into customer engagement and interaction together with your email campaigns. Your CRM software can also offer data on customer interactions throughout the sales process. As for your ecommerce platform, it can provide information on customer purchasing patterns and behaviors.
Checking sales stats for an online store
Implement Customer Journey Orchestration
Customer journey orchestration is the technique of delivering personalized and consistent experiences to consumers across all customer touchpoints. After you create a roadmap of the ideal customer journey, you’ll be able to then use automation and personalization tools to deliver that have.
Some examples of customer journey orchestration tools include email marketing, retargeting ads, push notifications, and chatbots. These tools play a crucial role in providing a seamless and relevant experience at each stage of the customer journey.
Email marketing permits you to engage with customers directly through personalized messages, keeping them informed and connected. Retargeting ads aid you
Push notifications enable you to deliver timely and targeted messages to customers’ devices, ensuring they stay updated together with your latest offerings. Chatbots, on the other hand, provide quick assistance and support, enhancing the overall customer experience.
By leveraging these customer journey orchestration tools effectively, you’ll be able to significantly increase the possibilities of conversion and foster
More Resources for Positive Customer Experience
In the Ecwid Blog, we have tons of helpful content for business owners, including our own Ecwid Ecommerce Show podcast. These resources can aid you dive deeper into customer journey mapping and analytics, as well as other essential facets of running a successful business. For instance:
Customer Service Tools Every Business Needs
In this podcast, we discuss the top customer support tools that may aid you construct stronger relationships with customers and improve their overall experience together with your brand.
Retaining Customers with a Smart Loyalty Program
Customer retention is an essential aspect of any successful business. In this podcast, we share ways to create a loyalty program that can keep customers coming back for more.
The way to Increase Customer Loyalty With Email Marketing
In this blog post, we dive into the power of email marketing and the way it may be used to drive sales and foster customer loyalty.
See all episodes of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show here.
Let’s Sum Up Making a Customer Journey
Improving the customer journey in ecommerce is essential not just for closing more sales but additionally for constructing lasting relationships with customers.
You’ll be able to attract and retain loyal customers by understanding the customer journey, creating customer journey maps, using customer journey analytics, orchestrating the customer journey, and optimizing each stage of the journey.
Let’s sum up a few of the foremost points that we discussed above:
- Understanding the customer journey is crucial for optimizing ecommerce experiences and fostering lasting customer relationships.
- A customer journey map is a visual representation of the various stages a customer goes through interacting with a brand.
- Customer journey analytics is a set of metrics and tools for tracking, measuring, and optimizing the customer journey. Key metrics include conversion rates, bounce rates, time on page, cart abandonment rate, customer lifetime value, and customer satisfaction scores.
- Quite a few analytics tools can be found for tracking and analyzing customer journey data, reminiscent of Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and Mixpanel.
- Customer journey orchestration involves delivering personalized and consistent experiences across all touchpoints. Tools essential in this process include email marketing, retargeting ads, push notifications, and chatbots.
Remember, the customer journey is not a
