eCommerce Customer Journey: Meaning, Stages, and How to Build

The eCommerce market is vast, with global sales hitting $5.8 trillion in 2023 and expected to surpass $8 trillion by 2027.

But how complex is the eCommerce landscape? Is it just about finding trending products, building an online store, and waiting for customers? Not quite. The journey involves much more, from generating leads to providing excellent customer service.

Understanding the stages of the eCommerce customer journey is crucial. This journey impacts your relationship with users and determines your business’s success. In this blog, we’ll dive into the basics of the eCommerce customer journey. We’ll break down its stages and discuss how eCommerce development experts create an effective customer journey map.

What is an eCommerce Customer Journey?

The eCommerce customer journey is the process a customer goes through from the moment they realize they need a product to the point where they make a purchase. It involves various stages, known as customer touchpoints, which are crucial in creating a pleasant experience for potential buyers.

This journey isn’t a quick one; it can take days and span across different channels. Each touchpoint is an opportunity for your business to connect with the customer and guide them toward purchasing.

Why is it Important?

Your customers develop opinions about your business based on every interaction with your website. Viewing these interactions as a journey helps you understand the overall customer experience and identify what they need at each touchpoint.

By paying attention to the entire customer journey, you can answer some important questions like:

• Why did someone abandon their shopping cart?
• Did they struggle to find what they were looking for?
• How can I learn from their actions on my site?
• What changes should I make to increase conversions?

Let’s look at some statistics that might help you understand the importance of eCommerce customer journey mapping:

• 46% of customers trust a brand after receiving personalized experience and communication.
• 45% of businesses are planning to invest in customer journey analytics.

5 Stages of eCommerce Customer Journey

Understanding your customers’ buying process can significantly enhance your overall eCommerce experience, encouraging them to reorder and stay loyal. By evaluating each stage of the customer journey, you can find areas for improvement and boost sales.

Every stage is crucial in delivering a memorable customer experience. Let’s dive into eCommerce customer journey stages to see how they shape the overall shopping experience:

Stage 1: Awareness

Key Actions	Content	Engagement Strategy
Understand Brand	Blog & Videos	SEO & Analytics
Find Solutions	Infographics	Social Media
Research Issue	Brand Education	Content Quality

Your prospects become aware of your brand and your products in the ‘Awareness’ stage. This is where they will learn about your business, which happens through multiple channels such as search engines, social media, and online ad campaigns. It’s important to know how they found you. Was it by finding your website on Google or maybe from an ad on YouTube?

Start tracking the user behavior after they hit your site. Are they leaning toward a particular product? Do visitors of similar characteristics display the same browsing patterns? By analyzing this data, you can gain valuable insights into what interests your audience the most.

This stage is not only about visibility but also about getting to know the likes and dislikes of your customers. It’s the perfect chance to determine their pain points and present your product or service as the ultimate solution. An effective eCommerce SEO strategy is really important at this step. Optimizing your website and content based on customer behavior can improve your marketing and sales efforts.

In this stage, your prospects are likely experiencing a problem for which they are actively looking for solutions. It’s the time when they bump into your website or any other online channel. Newsletters, ads, banners, blogs, and social media will help you increase your visibility.

Content for the Awareness stage:

• Blog Posts and Articles: Well-crafted blogs and informative articles can engage potential customers.
• How-to and Educational Videos: Videos explaining your products or services and providing an introduction to your brand.
• Infographics: A pictorial representation of essential ideas, statistics, and points through infographics.
• Social Media: Create a strong presence on social media to increase brand awareness.

What to do:

• Provide useful information that will help the audience understand your brand and what it represents.
• Highlight the benefits of your products and services.
• Ensure that your content educates and informs.
• Establish yourself as an industry thought leader.

Stage 2: Consideration

Key Actions	Content	Engagement Strategy
Product Browsing	Webinars & Podcasts	User Engagement
Compare Options	Product Comparison	Site Activity Monitor
Assess Preferences	Original Reports	Relevant Content

At the ‘Consideration’ stage, customers begin to take a keen interest in your products or services. They are considering all the options they have within the marketplace, so you must keep them engaged to avoid losing them to competitors.

Engagement at this level is challenging but very crucial. Your potential customers may browse different categories on your website. They might get bored if your website is poorly designed. Use category filters, well-structured shop pages, and targeted landing pages that will help them find what they want as smoothly and engagingly as possible.

Content for the Consideration stage:

• Cost Calculators: Add tools through which customers can see how much they will be saving with your products.
• Original Reports and Research: Show your expertise by preparing in-depth reports and research.
• Podcasts and Webinars: Keep the audience enthralled with informative podcasts and webinars.
• Storytelling Videos: Share stories about your brands and products through captivating videos.
• Product Comparison Charts: Share detailed product comparisons to help prospects make better decisions.
• Case Studies and Whitepapers: Go deeper into showing the value of a product with case studies and whitepapers.

What to do:

• Know your buyers.
• Understand what prospects’ questions might be and then put up relevant content answering these questions.
• Develop content that solves buyers’ problems.
• Track and analyze site activity continuously to refine your strategies.

Stage 3: Conversion

Key Actions	Content	Engagement Strategy
Make a Purchase	Testimonials	Promotions
Eliminate Doubts	Trials & Demos	Simple Checkout
Engage & Act	Consultation	Retargeting Tools

‘Conversion’ is the stage where all your hard work leads to a purchase, but this is the stage at which most prospective customers drop off, thus causing high cart abandonment rates. There are various strategies to optimize conversion rate.

Content for the Conversion stage:

• Free Trials/Demos: Allow customers to experience your product with free trials or demos.
• Customer Reviews and Testimonials: Build trust by displaying positive feedback from satisfied customers.
• How-To Articles and Guides: Detailed guides that remove any kind of doubt from the potential customer’s mind.
• Free Consultation Calls: Free consultation calls in which their specific needs could be addressed.

What to do:

• Use discounts, promotions, and other offers to incentivize customers to buy from you.
• The checkout process should be short and hassle-free. There should not be too many steps to frustrate the customer.
• Utilize tools that will help you retarget customers who have abandoned their carts without making a purchase.
• Fill your product pages with high-resolution images, detailed descriptions, and informative videos.
• Implement chatbots for real-time assistance and solutions for customer queries.

Stage 4: Retention

Key Actions	Content	Engagement Strategy
Post-Purchase Support	Community Building	Customer Service
Maximize ROI	In-app Messages	Loyalty Programs
Customer Loyalty	Knowledge Base	Upselling

While getting customers to buy your products feels great, having them come back over and over is even better. An eCommerce store owner’s job is to ensure that existing customers are kept satisfied.

A sale is simply a starting point in the customer experience. Your primary reason for doing business should always be to achieve the highest possible ROI from every customer.

One of the important key metrics to focus on is customer lifetime value. It measures the total business of the customer during the relation period, from the very first purchase to the last.

Content for the Retention stage:

• Customer Support Channels: Create dedicated channels for existing customers’ queries or complaints and resolve them promptly.
• Community Building: A sense of belonging has to be created among paid customers; they need to feel part of the community.
• In-App Messages: Engage your customers and send them updates or special offers using in-app messages.
• Onboarding Emails: Keep new customers informed about your products by sending them informative onboarding emails.
• Knowledge Base: Provide an effective knowledge base that will help customers make full use of your products.

What to Do:

• Ensure that you provide excellent customer support through all possible channels, such as email, chat, and social media.
• Use reward programs for customer retention.
• Offer special deals and promotions to existing customers to encourage additional purchases.

Stage 5: Advocacy

Key Actions	Content	Engagement Strategy
Promote Brand	Positive Reviews	Relationship Building
Share Experience	Referral Campaigns	Multi-channel Engage
Strengthen Bonds	Testimonials	Data Outreach

At the ‘Advocacy’ stage, you have fans who are more than just satisfied customers of your brand. These are the customers who feel more than happy to share your products with their friends and families, and ensure to make positive testimonials about their experience.

Content for the Advocacy stage:

• Positive Reviews: Encourage happy customers to post reviews on Google Reviews, TrustRadius, and G2. Identify trusted recommendation sites for your niche and establish a strong presence there.
• Video Testimonials: Request video testimonials from your customers—ideally highlighting any features or products.
• Referral Campaigns: Develop referral campaigns that will enable you to transform happy customers into new leads. Leverage great customer experiences to draw in new buyers.

What to do:

• Nurture relationships that bring the customer closer to the brand. This personal touch may go a long way in driving loyalty and advocacy.
• Engage customers across multiple channels, such as social media, email, and even calls, towards keeping up strong relations.
• Use data-driven outreach programs that help identify potential advocates and engage with them effectively.

How to Develop an Effective eCommerce Customer Journey?

So, now that you know the stages of an eCommerce customer journey, you might be ready to build and evaluate your store’s customer journey.

Let’s see how some essential steps to create a great eCommerce customer journey map:

Know Your Ideal Customer Base

To understand your customer journey, it’s crucial to know who your customers are and what they want. Start by asking yourself these questions:

• Who are your customers? Consider their age, gender, occupation, and interests.
• What are their needs and wants?
• What challenges do they face?
• What do they expect from your online store and products?

Don’t settle for a generic customer persona. Dive deep to build a detailed customer profile for effective eCommerce customer journey mapping.

For example: 

A cosmetics store identifies their ideal customer – Jessica, a 30-year-old professional in New York City. Jessica loves fashion and beauty, values quality, and seeks the latest trends without overspending. She researches thoroughly and trusts reviews before making purchases.

If you’re struggling to define your buyer persona, here are some tips:

• Examine your current customer data (demographics, purchase history, locations).
• Gather feedback and insights from existing customers.
• Analyze your competitors’ customer base.
• Review customer service emails and feedback to find patterns.
• Conduct surveys and interviews to collect customer feedback.

Collect Customer Data

Next, identify why your customers come to you. What are they seeking in your online store? How often do they visit? Do they make repeat purchases? What are their expectations?

To answer these questions, you need to collect data on your customers’ actions and behaviors.

Ways to collect information:

• Market research: Understand your market and where your business fits.
• Social media listening: Tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social can help you monitor conversations and trends.
• Surveys and interviews: Directly ask your customers for their input.
• Google Analytics data: Analyze traffic data to see how long customers stay on your site, which pages they visit most, and their purchase paths.
• Current customer base: Reach out to existing customers and ask about their journey with you and areas for improvement.
• Customer support data: Review support requests, complaints, and feedback to gain insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.

Define Customer Touchpoints

A touchpoint is any interaction between a customer and your business. Identifying these touchpoints helps you understand how customers interact with your online store at various stages.

Examples of touchpoints include:

• Social media (ads and organic posts)
• Emails (promotional and transactional)
• Website features (product pages, checkout experience, customer reviews)
• Company events
• Peer referrals
• Customer loyalty programs

To manage customer touchpoints effectively, decide which channels to use, how to personalize each touchpoint, and how to measure their effectiveness. Choose touchpoints that align with your resources and goals to reach your target customers.

Optimize touchpoints for maximum engagement by measuring customer responses. Track interactions and measure the success of campaigns and promotions. For example, if you’re running an email campaign, monitor how many people open the emails and click through to purchase.

Note Customer Actions

Listing the actions your customers take at each stage helps improve micro-engagements and create a seamless, personalized experience.

eCommerce customer journey mapping is an ongoing process. Consider the steps customers take to explore, engage, and convert. Identify key tasks and reduce the clicks needed to complete them. For instance, if customers struggle to find specific products, add product filters to simplify their search.

Here are some tips to optimize each journey stage:

• Create content and campaigns that help customers discover your brand.
• Simplify the research process with helpful content like product reviews and comparison guides.
• Ensure customers clearly understand what they’ll get from your store.
• Create a smooth and secure checkout process.
• Foster brand loyalty by offering discounts and rewards, such as loyalty programs and referral incentives.

Develop Your Journey Map

With the customer journey and touchpoints identified, create a journey map to visualize how customers interact with your store. This helps you understand their journey better.

eCommerce customer journey mapping is continuous. Regularly evaluate your journey map to keep up with changing customer needs and habits. Update the map as needed to reflect new trends.

Plan Your Resources

Once you have a clear picture of the customer journey, start planning resources to help customers complete their journey. Tailor campaigns and messages to each touchpoint for a seamless experience.

Key Note: Regularly update customer data to ensure touchpoints are relevant and personalized. And revise the map in your online store when adding new products or services.

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FAQs on eCommerce Customer Journey

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End Notes

The eCommerce customer journey covers the entire buyer lifecycle, from discovering your store to becoming a loyal fan.

Whether you are just starting out your eCommerce business or have an established one, understanding this journey is key to success. It helps customers move smoothly through the buying process and gives you insights into their needs and preferences.

Using eCommerce customer journey mapping tools can simplify this process. These tools help you manage everything from attracting new customers to refining each interaction and creating tailored campaigns. By doing this, your business can stay ahead of the competition and better meet customer expectations.

If you still need assistance in eCommerce customer journey mapping or want to create great CX for your website, contact us today!