How to optimise customer journey on your eCommerce store?

In the e-commerce industry, we can observe a lot of competitors in almost every industry niche. Thus, it becomes imperative for online store merchants to deliver the best shopping experience so they can stay ahead of their competitors. One of the most important things while providing a great level of customer experience is to optimize the customer journey and attract more customers to your conversion funnel. So let’s know almost everything about conversion funnel, optimizing the customer journey, and much more.

What Is A Conversion Funnel?

Also known as the Sales funnel, the conversion funnel is a popular epithet that will let you visualize and understand how potential customers are brought to your e-commerce store and then take the desired actions (i.e. converts). This complete process is also called a funnel because the marketers are guiding the customers towards the conversion point.

But unlike the traditional funnels, you are not able to pour the customers into this funnel. You can leave no stone unturned to attract potential customers to this conversion funnel. However, after they arrive at the funnel, it is your responsibility to pull people through the funnel and guide them for their next action. In simple words, the customers shouldn’t feel that they are closed to a page i.e. they don’t have any options neither they should be baffled for taking the next step. All the options must be visible, available, and functional.

How To Perform Conversion Rate Optimization?

Do you know that the average e-commerce rate is just 1-2%? A 2% conversion rate should be your e-commerce goal. You can optimize the conversion rate of your e-commerce at any stage in the funnel. For doing this effectively, you have to consider the user experience at every stage of the funnel.

Before delving in, you must know that there are several purchase funnels that can range from simplified to super complex. Eventually, you will get extremely versed with the conversion funnel analysis.

It is better to provide more details on the sales funnel. It can help in improving the customer’s experience throughout the funnel. The details will help look as it is not a funnel. It can increase your ability to find similar customers that you know convert well to your e-commerce store. You will also observe the scaling of your business. Thus, conversion funnel optimization is a 2-fold solution. Thus it is highly important & valuable.

Main Steps In A Conversion Funnel

There are 5 important steps in the conversion funnel optimization. Since the funnel is quite complex to understand we will be considering an analogy of food, so it will be interesting to understand it.

1. Creating Awareness

In this phase, you will be attracting your customers to e-commerce stores.

Analogy: Suppose a scrumptious aroma wafting from the kitchen brought your attention.

Potential Actions: Here your potential action would be to look at how you have attracted these buyers through different channels such as social media platforms, search engine results, PPC, guest blogging, etc. The lead generation can be through inbound marketing, outbound efforts, referrals, etc. You have to find every different way of making people aware of your brand. After that checkout click-through rates, and other Google Analytics metrics. Hopefully, you are targeting the right audience. In case, you have been attracting the wrong audience on your e-commerce store, then you have wasted your time and money as well. Now think would you bake muffins for someone who doesn’t like muffins?

2. Generate Interest

In this phase, you will be focusing to pique customers’ interest in your products or services.

Analogy: Suppose you turn your head and peek around the kitchen corner to find a fresh, molten tray of brownies getting cool.

Potential Actions: The power of your e-commerce store and content would be extremely powerful elements in this phase. The aim should be to build a strong relationship with the buyers in the interest phase. Getting attention to e-mails is one of the best ways for doing this. Getting users to subscribe for newsletters and emails. For increasing the opt-in-rate, put efforts into aspects such as headlines, carousel images, and banners. Create an enticing copy and have a well-executed layout for entry points such as blog posts, homepage, and product description pages. First impressions are highly important, thus the layout, images, content, should be proper.

3. Customer Desire for Service or Product Offered

In this potential, your aim is to make potential customers want what you are offering.

Analogy: You have to give your customers the same feeling just like when your mother tells you that the brownies are chocolaty and warm. You will definitely have one and you have completely forgotten what you were doing earlier.

Potential Actions: In this phase, you have captured the customers’ attention. Leverage higher-level, attention-grabbing elements for more details. You can initiate by providing captivating photos of products, tantalizing product descriptions, and also the videos. After making sales, gain product reviews as well.

Extra Actions: Apart from the product pages, create supporting content with a mission statement, blog, articles, shipping & returns policy, promotional offerings, etc.

4. Conversion

In this phase, the customers will take the desired action. Although this action may be of signing up for the newsletter, the aim is to convert them.

Analogy: In this phase, you are equivalent of your face planting into the tray of brownies and showing no manners or shame.

Potential Actions: Here the focus is on the product pages to make sure there are no obstacles. The customers should be encouraged to put products in the cart. Examine your checkout flow by adding important information and answering proper FAQs. Checkout is a highly critical stage. Improve it to minimize the abandoned cart rates. A few checkout adjustments can impact huge results.

5. Make Regular Patrons

In many conversion funnels, this step is usually missing but is highly important for the e-commerce business. After making a purchase on the site, you can’t just forget your customers. You must want them to return to your site and again make purchases. Customer retention is one of the most crucial aspects while running an e-commerce store. It will help you make revenue from customers you don’t need to pay to acquire and have already shown interest in your brand.

Analogy: After gorging brownies, you have come outside of the kitchen, and then your mom tells you that there is ice cream in the fridge. You will certainly go back to the kitchen.

Potential Actions: There are many different approaches to encourage customers to come back to your site and make purchases. Invite them on your social media channels, and e-mail newsletter. Send them promotional emails, coupons, etc. Include marketing or loyalty materials in the shipment for encouraging them to come back to your store.

Keep in mind: There are endless options here. Do whatever you feel appropriate. But don’t just bombard your customers with emails and communication. Instead, go gradually.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have understood the conversion funnel and the main steps of the conversion funnel. So, developing ecommerce stores with highly advanced features & functionalities will only be profitable if you manage to optimize the customer journey.