Customer journey optimisation plays a vital role in every area of ecommerce marketing. The journey begins from the moment a potential customer learns about your store. They may arrive from a sponsored ad on social media. They may find you through a personal referral or from a search for products your store offers. However they hear about you, you have multiple chances to turn those potential customers into converting customers. To do this, however, you need to have a customer journey optimisation plan in place.
Customer Journey Optimisation Ideas
Once a customer comes across your store, a few things happen. In the majority of cases, they will visit your store with the intention to see what you offer rather than make a purchase right away. They have arrived at your store after hearing about your products. At this point, they want to see a few things: your products, your website, your service, perhaps some reviews, and a general sense of what they can expect if they make a purchase.
After that, the customer will probably view a few other stores selling similar products. They may do some more research on the products they are wanting to purchase. They may remember that you have a resource centre or blog and go back to your site to get some tips. At this stage, they’re starting to reach the decision-making stage. When they have made their decision, they will make a purchase.
With that in mind, there are a few key things that you can do to get the most from the journey:
- Start on the right foot. First impressions are everything. The better the experience customers have from their very first introduction (on social media and your store itself), the more likely they are to return.
- Map the journey. Tracking and monitoring the journey from start to finish will allow you to identify opportunities and potential areas that may result in lost conversion.
- Embrace feedback. Reviews, comments, messages and any other feedback you get from customers are all extremely useful. Encourage feedback and use it to improve the journey – even if the feedback is not super positive.
- Engage at every stage. If you are not actively engaging customers from the start, you are losing out on the chance to provide them with the best experience. Don’t assume that engagement is a one-time thing to get customers to your store.
- Get personal. Knowing that every customer is unique is essential. Buyer personas, personalised, intimate campaigns and other tailored strategies will make customers feel more connected with your store from the start.
Ecommerce Marketing Customer Journey Optimisation
With a few simple strategies, you can ensure that your customers get the best experience, whatever stage of the journey they’re on at present. Putting more time, thought and effort into customer journey optimisation is the best way to attract (and keep) customers, making it a must for your ecommerce marketing strategies.
