When you’re a consumer yourself, it is easy. You see a product, and you buy. You know your intentions, what you are doing, and why you are doing it. There are no secrets.
However, as an online business owner, you are often left with more questions than answers.
One answer would be to improve your customer’s digital journey but to do so, you need to understand what it is.
The ‘digital customer journey’ or the ‘e-commerce journey’ refers to the interaction between the customer and your brand, from browsing to purchase and beyond. It is about what consumers do when they land on your website. What are they looking at, and for how long? How many pages do they look at before they buy?
As an online business owner, you want to make money – and generate as much income from your business as you can. This is why you need to understand the digital customer journey. The key is to identify the stage your consumer is at and curate what information they receive to get them to buy your product or service.
Let’s break it down.
Marketers generally agree on five stages in the customer’s e-commerce journey. The stages are not consistently named, but the general idea of what happens in each step stays the same across the literature.
Let’s look at all five stages (or phases) and suggest some strategies for the business owner in each section.
Discovery or interest: The consumer becomes aware of your brand or service. It means your billboard, magazine advertisement, online ad, or social media campaign had the desired effect (yay!), and a customer wants to know more.
‘Interesting, some motorcycle gear,’ is what your customer might be saying at this stage.
How can this help you?
As a business owner, you can use the discovery stage to learn where your customers are coming from. On what pages are they landing, and where do they go from there? It is possible to see how your consumer clicks through the options on your site and in what order they view your pages. The opportunity here is to learn about the needs of your new consumers. Is there a way to get them to the check-out more smoothly?
Search. Seeking to satisfy his curiosity, the consumer will actively try to learn more about your product or service. Something about you tickled his fancy. Not everybody is going to stay and buy, though.
‘Perhaps they will have something for Mom’s birthday.’ Our customer is sure interested.
How can this help you?
You can now try to figure out how to get a consumer to stay longer and browse more products. The opportunity is to help customers find what they are looking for.
Research/some intent. This is the tricky part! Your consumer is still here, but not yet fully convinced. In this stage of the consumer digital journey, the customer may try to verify your reputation by reading reviews. He might also put some things in his shopping cart or wish list, but his money is not yet in your pocket.
‘Hmm, this pink motorcycle helmet looks nice, but will Mom like it? I am going to save it for later, but let’s browse more.’
How can this help you?
This might be an excellent time to identify which page features work to your advantage. What is it that gets consumers to add products to their shopping carts? Perhaps you can add an email option here. People who are not ready to commit fully may be interested in receiving more information from you later.
Purchase or conversion. At last, the first three phases have paid off! The customer is ready to part with his money.
‘Yep, I can see Mom in these biker pants. It’s great!’
How can this help you?
Of course, you are converting the sale, which was part of the plan right from the start. But when your target consumer buys something, there is also an opportunity to serve them better in the future. This would be a good time to run a post-purchase survey and get feedback about your product or service. What worked and what didn’t? Your customer can tell you.
Engagement or advocacy: Here’s where the customer gives something back in the form of ‘free advertising.’ He or she might write something on social media, subscribe to your newsletter, or buy more products. This advocacy can even lead more consumers to your product.
‘I should post a picture of Mom and her new pants on Biker Buddy’s Insta.’
How can this help you?
Besides the obvious perks of more exposure, you can use the consumer engagement from this phase to get email list sign-ups or offer additional information to keep your consumer coming back for more. Some business owners like to provide blogs or articles where consumers can learn more about their product or service.
Your consumer, of course, is unaware of what they are doing. They are experiencing each stage of the digital consumer journey rather than actively thinking about it as stages in a trip.
The thinking part is your job! Online business owners and entrepreneurs need to ask the right questions when considering the e-commerce journey for their target market. It would help if you had answers that can convert to actionable detail and apply it to your specific digital customer journey to make it better.
In the end, it is all about knowing what the consumer is doing so that you can identify which stage in your digital customer journey need more tweaking so that it can lead to better conversion.
https://emarsys.com/learn/blog/creating-personalized-experience-across-digital-customer-journey/
https://www.arpatech.com/blog/typical-stages-consumer-journey-e-commerce/
https://www.hotjar.com/blog/ecommerce-customer-journey/
https://youtu.be/D6jRyHnLquM?list=PL027Bw0T-5r7mKGidCXWUGlI48P71TQuh
