Ideally, every eCommerce founder gets inside every shopper’s mind to reveal their motives and next steps.
But in the absence of that, we give you: the eCommerce shopping journey map.
It is the “big picture ” that can potentially improve your products, enable better customer support and ensure your shoppers love your brand.
In this piece, we’ll explore:
8 Ways to Foolproof an eCommerce Customer Journey Map
How to Build an eCommerce Customer Shopping Journey
eCommerce Shopping Journey Template for 2024
8 Ways to Foolproof an eCommerce Customer Journey Map 1. Narrow down your buyer persona Since personalization is key in making your customer journey map work better, the first step is finetuning your buyer personas.
Here are the steps you can follow:
→ Segment through demographics: This is crucial for you to create your marketing strategies. Irrespective of how further along the funnel a segment of shoppers is, an older audience is likely to have a larger disposable income. In this case, for more precision, look at your ideal TG to draw the right inferences.
→ Look at existing sales data: The nature of products chosen, how much was added to cart at a given point in time and what sort of discounts were availed more, will let you build a clearer picture of the different buyer personas.
→ Include your customer support data: This is where you’ll be able to gather insights on customer challenges & complaints and how they wish for their objections to be met / resolved.
Pro Tip: An annual review of your buyer personas will help you judge your brand’s journey better—this will also create room for you to tweak the segments based on real-time buying behavior & engagement.
2. Understand your buyer’s needs / goals This is the only way you can actually aim for increased conversions.
The truth is there isn’t a single conversion path anymore, which means you’ll have to look at customer behavior by assessing the unique paths they take & convert (or drop off).
To improve your understanding of where the buyer is:
→ Map out patterns in customer behavior: For this, looking at existing customers can help, especially ones that have repeatedly shopped with you. Reviewing the ones that did shop at some point but suddenly dropped off can also help finding out potential glitches in the customer path.
→ Define how each stage of the eCommerce shopping journey will help: This will certainly depend on the segments you create, with each segment having a very different journey with your brand & products. Notice if the touchpoints you’ve identified have a real-time bearing on shopper behavior.
→ Identify triggers of interest / attention: The best way to do this is to find out what your key audiences (in each segment) are searching for. Use an SEO tool and do a keyword analysis to look at location, product preference, concerns being typed out.
Further Reading: eCommerce Marketing Calendar 2024 (& Tips on How to Promote)
3. Map out the most crucial touchpoints Narrowing down on buyer personas will naturally help you make your data fall into segments.
Post this, you’ll have to see which touchpoints each segment naturally seems to interact with more.
To make this process more intuitive:
→ Get a 360 degree view: What this means is that you need to take an omnichannel approach in identifying your touchpoints. Check socials, affiliate reach, referral reach, email engagement / conversions and of course your store’s website.
→ Review customer support gaps: For this, sort the feedback you receive (if you haven’t yet introduced a feedback button on your website, this is a good time to do that.) Alongside, check the messages you receive on live chat and if customers complain of having to share the same info time and again. It’s also a good idea to look at the more negative reviews you receive across products.
→ Consider minor touchpoints & their influence: These may not impact your conversions as much, but they’re likely to play a role in indirectly impacting the major touchpoints. Email sign-ups, returns & privacy policy links, welcome / thank you emails and referrals can all play a role in improving micro-conversions & helping the major ones perform better.
Pro Tip: Categorize your touchpoints as “before”, “during” and “after” purchase journeys. This lets you see how they impact conversions at each stage and how to optimize them better. For example, a live chat may come in handy before, during and after, which makes it a high value touchpoint that needs priority optimization.
4. Track your customer journey reports This key to making sense of what, why, how and when behind customer behavior through a journey.
On GA4, there are three primary reports you can follow:
➣ Acquisition report(s): There are two kinds of reports you’ll have to focus on in this category. One is the user acquisition report and the other is the traffic acquisition report. While the user acquisition report helps you identify the first traffic source that wheeled in the user, the traffic acquisition report looks at the last touchpoint.
➣ Behavior flow report: This report is really the one-stop view of how (how often, how effectively) a user is engaging & interacting with your storefront. Right from the pages that see maximum conversion intent to the trail of events that a customer covers before purchasing or dropping off, this report offers key insights.
➣ Conversion Paths report: This one’s a real-time report that works in alignment with the conversion events you choose for tracking. In terms of tracking the eCommerce shopping journey, the conversion paths report looks at multiple events in combination to one another that may have resulted in a conversion.
5. Identify what’s causing friction There’s no doubt that a unique customer journey map will present unique points of friction.
But even then, it’s good to know what causes friction as a typical customer matures:
In the awareness phase: It could be how confusing the navigation menu is on your homepage or a case of too many emails as soon as a potential shopper signs up for a “10% off” pop-up.
In the consideration phase: You may have done a great job at clarifying what your brand values are, but your product descriptions could be lacking. Or your paid ad landing pages aren’t offering a solid value proposition that potential customers can count on.
In the acquisition phase: Your product pages may be great overall but you may have missed key nuances like an FAQ section or linked microcopy to the most important policies. It’s also possible that you feature user generated content but potential shoppers can’t click through to see the original shoppable posts across your socials. The most common perhaps is trust issues with the payment methods available or lack of clarity on what payment methods are available,
In the post-purchase phase: Lack of email updates is one of the biggest friction points in the post-purchase stage . What we’ve also seen is nurturing emails not doing enough to support a shopper’s complex post-purchase journey.
In the loyalty phase: The most common we’ve found is a loyalty program that doesn’t do what it promises (it could be lack of flexibility, irrelevant savings schemes or free gifts that have nothing to do with the shopper’s preferences.) Lack of referral incentives and exclusivity at this stage can also be irritants.
6. Analyze the top performing pages / channels This will help you find out what’s working well and why—in turn these answers will help you identify aspects in other parts of the customer experience that can be optimized and improved.
Here are a few important key areas to look into:
→ Review key metrics: Essentially what you need to track and analyze are the metrics that give you a direct peek into customer behavioral patterns (the good, the bad, the ugly!)—Some metrics that will help you resolve issues in the eCommerce shopping journey are Average Order Value, Conversion Rate, Customer Lifetime Value, Store Sessions by Traffic Source and Returns & Refund Rate.
→ Review key pages: The idea is to be able to notice what kind of actions shoppers are taking across these pages (for example, are you seeing more add-to-cart happening from the homepage? Are more shoppers clicking on the “more payments” option on the product page? What about the pages that are converting well but also seeing some amount of bounce rate?)
→ Review key channels: Are you getting most questions on products through social media and then purchases through your website? Are your emails seeing increasing click-through and conversion rates? Are your profit margins on an online marketplace seeing improvement?
Further Reading: 15 stories: Brands that managed channel conflict like champs
7. Fix “the gaps” Even if you’ve put all the effort into your eCommerce customer journey mapping, you’d still see some gaps across the various stages of the funnel.
Some common “gaps” in the eCommerce shopping journey include:
➣ Non-personalized discount strategy: This may have to do with which products you’re discounting and what you’re marketing to each segment—for example, a more mature customer may appreciate an anniversary discount over a newer buyer, who’d likely love a BOGO or bundling offer
➣ Missing incentives at key junctures: For example, in case you run a loyalty program, are the benefits easily accessible (ask: would they be prompted to increase AOV with the incentives?) Similarly, do you ask for feedback but without offering discounts on next purchases?
➣ Lack of timely customer support: Is it easy to find your customer support information across the site and in your emails? Does your live chat feature across all pages on your website (some brands continue to optimize this only on their product pages.)
➣ An under-optimized checkout: Multiple pages when you can offer a single page checkout by formatting the sections clearly. Too many unnecessary form fields. Difficulty to view returns policy at the last minute.
8. Modify / customize the customer journey map At the last stage of the foolproofing cycle, you get a chance to modify elements, touchpoints and approaches that will help your segments convert better.
We’ve usually seen the following work across the funnel:
→ Run required A/B tests: It’s ideal to look at small batches for running these tests—explore aspects like pricing improvement, quality of product descriptions, email targeting etc.
→ Pay special attention to high intent pages: Tweaking the homepage, category page, product pages and checkout first is likely to have a faster impact on conversions—look at reducing cognitive load and improving the reasons to add-to-cart
→ Focus on empowering the customer: Some key areas to look into would be your live chat function (and what options it features, whether it clarifies hours of operation, how quick turnaround time is) and self-help resources across your site (are your policies easily accessible? do you have a separate FAQ page on the most pressing customer objections?)
Further Reading: 153 A/B Testing Ideas for eCommerce (Homepage, PDP, Cart, Checkout)
How to Build an eCommerce Customer Shopping Journey While there are many ways to develop a customer journey map, the most reliable way we’ve found is to follow these steps (while leaving room for the nuances your data bring in):
Identify the biggest moments of truth Moments of truth are those touchpoints that invariably give the shopper more reason to stay back or drop off.
Irrespective of what customer segment you’re working with to visualize the map, certain moments of truth remain common and universal—here’s a quick list:
✔ Points of personalization (including recommendations, relevant discounts, content that removes objections for every segment etc.)
✔ Pricing (based on what competition is charging, how quantity purchases are rewarded, how repeat purchases are acknowledged through better deals etc.)
✔ Product & brand clarity (values & back-end transparency on how the brand operates, how products are made, social proof, depth of customer reviews etc.)
✔ Quality of navigation (hierarchy of categories & subcategories, ease of finding guides & gifts, how easy it is to understand what a category page offers etc.)
✔ Ease of returns / refunds (are the policies easily accessible on the site? will customers know if you decide to extend the returns window in a specific season? are there various ways for shoppers to make the most of refunds?)
✔ Post-purchase support (are their email follow-ups? do you ask customers for feedback even if they’ve been loyal for a while? do shoppers receive helpful, non-transactional content through emails?)
Get clarity on the substages For every stage of the eCommerce shopping experience, shoppers are bound to “consider” the buying decision in substages.
For example for the awareness stage, you’ll have to look at how shoppers express their interest in your brand and products—Do they look up your social media handles often? Do they click on your ads over competitor ads on Facebook and Google? Do they invariably explore the blog section on your website?
Create a visual flow While you may have a clear sense of how each segment is going along on the customer journey map, having a visualization helps even more.
The visual flow will help you map challenges & possibilities across stages and touchpoints—and as a result, identify gaps that you can fix either in the short-term of the long-term.
eCommerce Shopping Journey Template for 2024 To make things simpler, we’ve actually created a customer journey map template for eCommerce businesses - remember, this template can serve as a base framework; but you need to optimize it further based on your objectives and goals.
People are also curious about: What is an eCommerce customer journey map? Now there are four major types of journey maps that a business can design:
Current state: Helps you make incremental improvements by understanding how consumers are interacting with your brand as of today. Future state: This map helps you uncover insights and actionables that help you identify how consumers ‘will’ interact with your business once the changes go live. A day in the life: Charts your customer’s day in a holistic way; this may or may not include your brand, products or services and is handy when researching unmet consumer needs. Service blueprint: Simplified diagram to understand existing customer relationships and how every tool, technology, strategy and channel adds value to it. What are the different stages in a customer journey map? A typical online shopper goes through five key stages when making a purchase from a business:
Awareness - This stage typically includes coming across a product through a marketing or advertising campaign, and clicking through the website. Consideration - At this point, the visitor is on the website and is actively browsing through the products available on the store. Acquisition - This is where an online shopper takes an action, goes through checkout and makes a purchase from your site. Service - At this stage in the buyer cycle, you typically see customers seeking post-purchase services and support. This also includes cases of refunds, returns, exchanges and similar. Loyalty - This stage is when the customer is happy with the purchase made, leaves a positive review for it and is more likely to recommend your store in their network. We also refer to this as the eCommerce conversion funnel that starts by reaching out to a target market, introducing the brand and gradually driving them towards making a purchase. While the fundamental approach remains the same, the funnel gives you a visualization to sift through interest to find consumers who will actually make the purchase.
No more broken funnels- Learn to build 5 stages of an ecommerce conversion funnel (+ways to improve each step)
Now setting up a customer journey map is becoming simpler with the help of eCommerce analytics and visualization tools. The ability to integrate multiple marketing and sales channels to an eCommerce platform is further enabling an easy flow of data for businesses.
But the easy flow also comes with a plethora of data that businesses are not able to leverage. So before we get into creating a customer journey map for your business, let’s talk about some of the most common mistakes brands make.
What are the common mistakes while creating an eCommerce shopping journey? 1. Not having a clear objective or goal Overlapping and ambiguous goals can throw you off the insights that may be emerging from your shopping journey map in real time. Clear goals like “We want them to apply more of the available discounts” or “Not leave after contacting customer support the first time” will help in making necessary tweaks to your map.
2. Not doing enough research When you don’t do enough research, you end up with a customer journey map that is inconsistent with actual data. It’s important to thoroughly understand the data points you need to cover and where they will come from, to fuel your objective/ goal. Doing things on the fly may increase your spending without getting you insights to get promising results on the investment.
3. Not having the right perspective Another mistake that businesses make even before building a customer journey map is the way they approach it. Walking into building out the map on the basis of what you think a customer’s shopping journey and experience needs to look like , creates a gap in the insights you can derive from it.
4. Poorly developed persona(s) As mentioned in the mistake above, a lot about not having the right perspective boils down to the personas you have in place. Typically, eCommerce businesses create generic personas to be able to target a wider audience. This hampers their understanding of consumers and what can motivate them to make purchases.
Note: If you’re just getting started with developing customer personas, you can use existing templates to create a base .
5. Not covering the entire funnel Every online shopper goes through the five stages we mentioned above. But most businesses create a customer journey map that tracks interaction from the point of awareness to purchase only. They do not take into account the post-purchase stage which can make or break repeat sales in the coming period of time. W/o accounting for repeat purchases, your eCommerce shopping journey map runs the risk of leaving out a significant target base.
6. Not segmenting your map Most businesses create a standardized version of a customer journey map for all its buyers. This gives you low to no insights on individual customer segments, leading to optimization strategies that only address one.
Pro Tip: If you’re low on resources, we recommend starting with customer segments that hold the highest value for your business. This should be both in terms of the number of sales you get from this segment and the overall contribution to the revenue.
Map your customer journey with better UX 98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.
Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.
And this is the problem Convertcart solves.
We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.
How we can help you:
Our conversion experts can audit your site —identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.
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