Ask yourself: do you know how your customers end up in your store?

If not, you’re not doing it right.

Customers don’t appear in your online store ready to spend money by sheer luck. Their journey to purchase consists of different stages, and it may differ a lot for businesses in different niches. Understanding that journey is key to attracting, engaging, and retaining customers like a pro.

If you want to increase your chances of converting visitors into loyal customers, you need to understand what the customer journey is, how it works, and how to optimize it.

In this comprehensive article, we’ll explore everything you need to know about improving customer journey in ecommerce, from customer journey mapping to analytics and everything in between.

What Is a Customer Journey?

Customer journey (also known as buyer’s journey) refers to a customer’s path from initial awareness to final purchase and beyond. It’s the entire process a customer goes through when interacting with your brand, including getting acquainted with your brand, browsing your website, researching your products, making a purchase, and post-purchase interactions such as customer service.

In a nutshell, a buyer’s journey is the steps any customer takes before making a purchase decision. Think of the last time you purchased something. You probably followed a process similar to this:

• You realize you have a problem and need a solution. In the customer journey, this is called the awareness stage.
• After understanding the problem, you researched some possible solutions. We call this the consideration stage because this is the point where you start considering options and shopping around.
• After narrowing down your list to one or two solutions, you search for the best place to buy them. This is the decision stage.

This is the buyer’s journey, as it was first described in 1978. At that time, it was a relatively simple concept. Customers entered the journey from the awareness stage and exited at the decision stage. The entire journey was expected to be linear, with customers moving in a straight path from one stage to another.

What Are the Customer Journey Stages?

Compared to the customer journey described above, the modern buyer’s journey is very different.

Why, you may ask?

Your customers have access to the world’s knowledge at their fingertips. They have no real reason to follow the linear journey described above. They can start the purchase process, spend a few weeks considering the solution, and then decide not to buy anything at all — we’ve all been there.

Although the three discrete stages — awareness, consideration, and decision (or purchase) — still exist in this journey, customers go through them in a staggered, non-linear fashion. Your buyers might very well start searching for a solution, go through some Amazon reviews, and then give up halfway after being distracted by a new email or TikTok notification.

Plus, you might already know that selling to an existing customer is cheaper than attracting a new one. That means it would be impractical not to consider customer retention in your buyer’s journey.

While every customer journey is unique, there are some common stages that most modern customers go through. These stages include awareness, consideration, purchase, retention, and advocacy:

• In the awareness stage, customers become familiar with your brand and products.
• In the consideration stage, they evaluate your offerings and compare them to alternatives.
• In the purchase stage, they make a buying decision.
• In the retention stage, they come back for repeat purchases and interact with your brand.
• In the advocacy stage, they recommend your brand to others and become loyal fans.

Understanding the customer journey is crucial for any ecommerce business because it helps you identify the opportunities for improvement in the customer experience. By optimizing the customer journey, you can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, sales.

Customer journey stages in ecommerce (Image source: Omnisend)

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Example of a Buyer’s Journey

Let’s imagine you run an online store selling laptops. Your target audience is price-conscious consumers who prefer to do research before buying something.

A customer lands on your site by searching for “new Windows laptops” on Google. Here, they find a blog post about recently launched laptops.

Using this blog post, they make a list of different laptops offered by different brands. Because they’ve heard a lot about Dell, they decided to focus their search on Dell laptops. They type in “new Dell Windows laptops” on their browser and find a list of Dell laptops. They look at their prices and find the Dell model that would be perfect for them.

Now that they’ve made a choice, they need validation. Their next search is for “Dell [model] laptop reviews.” This query takes him to your blog, where they find an in-depth review.

Finally, after deciding that this is the right laptop for them, they want to find the best deal for it. They type in “Dell [model] laptop coupon codes.”

After finding a coupon code, they search for “buy Dell [model] laptop online.” Your site shows up as one of the results. They recognize your website name because they’ve had multiple positive interactions with your brand before. Because of the positive brand equity you’ve built up, you end up making a sale.

After acquiring a customer, you’d want to retain them. You do this by sending them an email after a few weeks asking about their experience and offering additional tips for using the laptop. This leads to customer satisfaction and potential advocacy through word-of-mouth recommendations.

You don’t stop there because you want to make your customer a loyal fan. You continue to nurture the relationship through personalized emails and exclusive offers for repeat purchases. By providing an excellent customer journey, you turn a one-time buyer into a loyal advocate for your brand.

As you can see, the customer journey is not just about making a sale; it’s about creating positive interactions and building long-lasting relationships with your customers.

An example of a customer journey in retail (Image source: Delighted)

Why Is the Customer Journey Important?

Understanding your customer journey is crucial for the success of your business. Rather than aggressively promoting your products, you can effectively attract customers by guiding them through each stage of their journey.

Other benefits of customer journey include the following:

• Increased brand awareness and recognition: By providing a seamless and positive experience, customers are more likely to remember and recommend your brand to others. This leads to increased brand awareness and recognition.
• Differentiating your brand from competitors: In today’s competitive market, having a unique and positive customer journey can help differentiate your brand from competitors. This can give you a competitive edge and attract more customers.
• Increased customer lifetime value: By focusing on the retention and advocacy stages of the customer journey, you can increase the lifetime value of your customers. Loyal customers are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to others, leading to increased revenue.
• Optimizing marketing strategies: The customer journey helps you understand which marketing channels are most effective at attracting potential customers and converting them into loyal fans.

We’ll show you how to accomplish this below.

What Is a Customer Journey Map?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of the steps your customers go through when interacting with your brand. This helps you understand and track the entire process from initial contact to purchase and beyond.

UXPressia analyzed the data on customer journey maps and ranked the layers according to their popularity

What Is Customer Journey Mapping?

Customer journey mapping involves creating visual representations of the entire customer journey, including various touchpoints where customers engage with your brand. Additionally, it entails understanding their emotions, behaviors, and motivations at different stages.

The goal of the customer journey mapping process is to gain a deep understanding of the customer’s experience so you can improve it at every step.

To create a customer journey map, you can use a customer journey map template or customize your own. Some key elements to include in a customer journey map are buyer personas, touchpoints, pain points, opportunities, and goals.

Customer Personas

Customer personas are fictional representations of your target customers. They include demographic information, behaviors, motivations, and pain points.

Creating buyer personas helps you understand your customer’s needs and tailor your content to meet them.

Customer Touchpoints

Customer journey touchpoints are all the points at which a customer interacts with your brand. This includes both online and offline interactions such as social media, email marketing, customer service, etc.

Customer Pain Points

Pain points are obstacles or frustrations that customers can experience along the journey. These include anything from a slow website to poor customer service.

Opportunities

Opportunities are areas where your brand can improve and make the customer experience better. Identifying opportunities helps you prioritize your efforts and resources.

Goals

Goals represent what your customers hope to achieve at each stage of the customer journey. These can include finding a solution, getting their questions answered, or receiving support.

Best Practices for Mapping Your Customer Journey

You can’t improve something if you don’t have it. So, if you’ve never created a customer journey map, it’s time to do so.

Here are some best practices for mapping your customer’s journey:

Create Your Buyer Persona

To map the customer’s journey, you need to research and analyze your customers’ behaviors, motivations, and pain points. That’s where buyer personas come in handy.

A buyer persona is a fictional customer that embodies the demographics and psychographics of your average customer. This customer persona serves as a constant reminder to align every aspect of your customer journey map with the right audience.

Identify your customers’ needs, motivations, and pain points to create your buyer persona (Image: Wordstream)

For example, if you sell high-end skincare products, your customer persona might be a 35-year-old woman with a full-time job and two kids who values self-care and luxury. This specific persona will give you insights into her needs, challenges, and goals.

It would help to conduct some user research when creating your buyer persona. For example, you can survey customers and take interviews.

To gather feedback from consumers who are interested in buying your products and services, target those who have either engaged with your company or are intending to do so. This way, you can get accurate information about your target audience’s needs and preferences.

Identify Your Touchpoints

Next, you’ll need to identify all the touchpoints where customers interact with your brand. To do this, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about every possible way they could come across or engage with your business.

99% of consumers research purchases online before going to a store, at least most of the time. So it’s pretty likely that your consumers do some online research, too. However, don’t forget to use the data from your customer and market research. This will provide you with a list of all the touchpoints your customers are currently using.

For example, your customer’s touchpoints online may include:

• Searching for products on Google
• Visiting your website
• Reading reviews on social media
• Seeing your Facebook ads.

As for an offline customer touchpoint, this can include:

• Visiting your physical store
• Visiting your booth at the market or event
• Calling your customer service.

Remember that each touchpoint should be evaluated based on its impact and importance to the overall customer journey.

Identify Pain Points and Opportunities

Once you have identified all the touchpoints, it’s time to look for pain points and opportunities for each of them. This involves analyzing customer feedback and complaints and using behavior analytics tools to identify areas where your brand can improve and provide a better experience.

For example, if you notice many website visitors are dropping off at the checkout page, they could be facing a pain point that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. If you also see a surge in customer queries on social media but slow response times from your customer service team, this could be another area of improvement.

Document the Customer Journey

Once you have identified all the touchpoints, it’s time to put them in order and map out the customer journey. Start with the awareness stage and document each step until they become a loyal customer.

Make sure to include the emotions, behaviors, and motivations at each stage. This will give you a clear understanding of how your customers are feeling and what they need at each step of their journey.

The process of mapping the customer journey remains speculative until you actually implement it. By doing so, you will gain firsthand insights into potential drop-offs or obstacles that customers may encounter along their journey. If you have multiple personas, follow the journey for each of them.

Continuously Review and Improve

Keep in mind that the customer journey is not static — it’s constantly evolving. That’s why it’s essential to review and improve your customer journey map continuously. This can involve conducting regular customer surveys, analyzing data, and making necessary adjustments to ensure a seamless experience for your customers.

Reviewing your customer journey regularly, for example, quarterly, will help you identify gaps and opportunities for further improving your customer journey.

Customer Journey Mapping Examples

To help you better understand the concept, let’s look at some customer journey map examples from various industries.

Customer Journey Map Example for Retail

A customer journey map for a retail store encompasses various touchpoints that customers encounter during their shopping experience. These customer touchpoints may include browsing products online, visiting the physical store, exploring different sections, trying on clothes in the fitting rooms, and finally making a purchase.

Throughout this journey, customers may experience both positive and negative aspects. Pain points could arise from encountering long checkout lines or interacting with unfriendly staff members, while positive aspects could include finding helpful product recommendations, receiving excellent customer service, or discovering personalized offers tailored to their preferences.

Customer Journey Map Example for Travel

For a travel company, the customer journey begins with researching destinations, where customers explore different options and gather information to make informed decisions.

Once the desired destination is chosen, the next step involves booking flights and accommodations, ensuring that every aspect of the trip is well-planned and tailored to the customer’s preferences.

Finally, the journey concludes with the check-in process, where travelers go through the necessary procedures to embark on their adventure.

Along this journey, there may be pain points that travelers encounter. These could include limited flight options, which can restrict flexibility and convenience, or unexpected delays that disrupt travel plans.

Customer Journey Map Example for Banking

A bank’s customer journey encompasses a series of touchpoints that customers encounter throughout their banking experience. These customer touchpoints could include activities such as opening an account online, visiting a branch for in-person assistance, and utilizing mobile banking services for convenient transactions.

However, it is important to identify and address potential pain points that customers may encounter during these touchpoints. For example, pain points could arise from complicated online account setup processes or long wait times experienced at the branch.

As you can see, each industry may have different touchpoints and pain points. That’s why it’s essential to create an accurate customer journey map specific to your business and continuously improve it based on data and customer feedback.

Of course, the examples we provided are quite simplified versions of customer journey maps. Ideally, your customer journey map should be detailed and consider not only the specifics of your business but also different target customer personas.

To make it easier to map your customer journey, you can use templates — more on that below.

How to Improve Your Customer Journey Map

Now that you have a better understanding of the customer journey map and its importance, here are some tips on how to improve it.

Choose the Right Customer Journey Map Templates

There are various templates available for creating a customer journey map. They differ in complexity, design, and approach. Some customer journey templates are better for visualizing a customer’s emotions, while others focus on touchpoints and pain points. It’s crucial to choose a template that best suits your business needs and goals.

Here are a few examples of common customer journey map templates:

Current State Customer Journey Map Template

This is one of the most common types of customer journey maps. They help you see and understand what your customers are going through — their actions, thoughts, and emotions when they interact with your company. This valuable insight is used to enhance the customer journey continuously.

Download a current state customer experience map template here.

Day-in-the-Life Customer Journey Map Template

These customer journey maps show what your customers go through in their daily activities, including their actions, thoughts, and emotions, whether or not they involve your brand and more. This type of customer journey map provides a broader perspective into your customers’ lives and helps identify their real-life pain points.

Day-in-the-life customer journey maps are great for addressing unmet customer needs even before they are aware of them. Use this type of map when exploring new market development strategies.

Here’s a visual representation and a template for day-in-the-life customer journeys.

Future State ​​Customer Journey Map Template

These customer journey maps provide insights into the actions, thoughts, and emotions that your customers will experience during their future interactions with your company. When using this customer journey map, consider their current interactions with your brand.

Use these types of customer journey maps to visualize your vision and establish strategic goals that drive your business forward.

Here’s a future state example of customer journey map templates.

Service Blueprint Customer Journey Map Template

These customer journey maps start with a simplified version of one of the map styles mentioned above. They then add the key elements that contribute to delivering a remarkable experience, such as people, policies, technologies, and processes. These maps provide valuable insights into optimizing customer experiences and enhancing overall satisfaction.

Service blueprints help uncover the factors driving current customer journeys and map out steps for future journeys. This will help you make informed decisions to enhance your offerings.

You can download a service blueprint template here.

Test Customer Journey Mapping Tools

There are several digital tools out there to help you create a customer journey map. These tools can make the process more efficient and effective by allowing you to collaborate with your team easily, customize your map, and integrate data.

Some popular customer journey mapping tools include:

UXPressia

This tool includes various templates for different industries, making it easier to start mapping your customer journey right away.

You can search for the template you need on UXPressia website

Smaply

This tool offers a user-friendly interface for creating different types of maps, including service blueprints and customizable customer and user journey maps.

Custellence

This customer journey mapping software helps teams create visual representations of customer journeys. It offers various templates and collaboration features.

Lucidchart

This is a popular diagramming and visualization tool that includes a customer journey mapping feature. It comes with built-in collaboration features.

Creating a customer journey map in Lucidchart

Whichever tool you choose, make sure it fits your specific needs and helps you create a detailed and effective customer journey map.

Pay Attention to Customer Journey Analytics

Once you have created your customer journey map, it’s essential to track and analyze data to identify areas of improvement. Customer journey analytics can help you understand customer behavior, preferences, and pain points throughout the entire journey.

This step is crucial for finding the areas of improvement in your existing customer journey and for gaining a deeper understanding of the customer lifecycle. That’s why it’s worth expanding on this topic — so keep reading!

What Is Customer Journey Analytics?

We’ve already discussed the importance of regularly reviewing and improving your customer journey maps. That brings us to the next point — how do you know that it’s time to improve your customer journey map? That’s where the customer journey analytics comes in.

Customer journey analytics are a set of metrics and tools that help you track, measure, and optimize the customer journey. By analyzing customer data, such as website behavior, demographics, and purchase history, you can identify patterns and trends that shed light on how customers interact with your brand.

Customer Journey Metrics

Customer journey analytics encompasses a range of metrics that provide valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences. Some examples of these metrics include:

• conversion rates, which measure the proportion of visitors who take a desired action,
• bounce rates that indicate the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page,
• time on page, which gauges the average duration visitors spend on a page,
• cart abandonment rate, which reflects the percentage of customers who add items to their cart but do not complete the purchase,
• customer lifetime value, which estimates the total revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship with a business,
• customer satisfaction scores that measure the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction customers have with a product or service.

Collectively, these metrics contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey and help businesses optimize their strategies for better customer experiences and outcomes. By analyzing these metrics, you can identify areas where customers are dropping out of the journey and take action to improve those stages.

Customer Journey Analytics Tools

Similar to customer journey mapping tools, there are also various analytics tools available to help you track and analyze data related to the customer journey. Some popular options include:

• Google Analytics — This is a free web analytics tool that offers insights into website traffic and user behavior. It includes features such as conversion tracking, demographic segmentation, and goal setting.
• Kissmetrics — This tool focuses on providing insights into customer behavior and retention. It offers features such as cohort analysis, funnel reports, and A/B testing.
• Mixpanel — This is a popular user analytics tool that helps track user interactions with websites and apps. It’s primarily used for tracking customer behavior.

Also, don’t forget to make the most out of the tools you already use. For example, your email marketing platform reports might provide you with insights into customer engagement and interaction with your email campaigns. Your CRM software may also offer data on customer interactions throughout the sales process. As for your ecommerce platform, it can provide information on customer purchasing patterns and behaviors.

Checking sales stats for an online store

Implement Customer Journey Orchestration

Customer journey orchestration is the process of delivering personalized and consistent experiences to consumers across all customer touchpoints. After you create a roadmap of the ideal customer journey, you can then use automation and personalization tools to deliver that experience.

Some examples of customer journey orchestration tools include email marketing, retargeting ads, push notifications, and chatbots. These tools play a crucial role in providing a seamless and relevant experience at each stage of the customer journey.

Email marketing allows you to engage with customers directly through personalized messages, keeping them informed and connected. Retargeting ads help you re-engage customers who have shown interest in your products or services, reminding them of what they might have missed.

Push notifications enable you to deliver timely and targeted messages to customers’ devices, ensuring they stay updated with your latest offerings. Chatbots, on the other hand, provide instant assistance and support, enhancing the overall customer experience.

By leveraging these customer journey orchestration tools effectively, you can significantly increase the chances of conversion and foster long-term customer loyalty.

More Resources for Positive Customer Experience

In the Ecwid Blog, we have tons of helpful content for business owners, including our own Ecwid Ecommerce Show podcast. These resources can help you dive deeper into customer journey mapping and analytics, as well as other essential aspects of running a successful business. For example:

Customer Service Tools Every Business Needs

In this podcast, we discuss the top customer service tools that can help you build stronger relationships with customers and improve their overall experience with your brand.

Retaining Customers with a Smart Loyalty Program

Customer retention is an essential aspect of any successful business. In this podcast, we share ways to create a loyalty program that will keep customers coming back for more.

How to Increase Customer Loyalty With Email Marketing

In this blog post, we dive into the power of email marketing and how it can be used to drive sales and foster customer loyalty.

See all episodes of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show here.

Let’s Sum Up Creating a Customer Journey

Improving the customer journey in ecommerce is essential not only for closing more sales but also for building lasting relationships with customers.

You can attract and retain loyal customers by understanding the customer journey, creating customer journey maps, using customer journey analytics, orchestrating the customer journey, and optimizing each stage of the journey.

Let’s sum up some of the main points that we discussed above:

• Understanding the customer journey is crucial for optimizing ecommerce experiences and fostering lasting customer relationships.
• A customer journey map is a visual representation of the various stages a customer goes through interacting with a brand.
• Customer journey analytics is a set of metrics and tools for tracking, measuring, and optimizing the customer journey. Key metrics include conversion rates, bounce rates, time on page, cart abandonment rate, customer lifetime value, and customer satisfaction scores.
• Numerous analytics tools are available for tracking and analyzing customer journey data, such as Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, and Mixpanel.
• Customer journey orchestration involves delivering personalized and consistent experiences across all touchpoints. Tools essential in this process include email marketing, retargeting ads, push notifications, and chatbots.

Remember, the customer journey is not a one-time project but an ongoing process of continuous improvement. Keep monitoring, tweaking, and testing your customer journey to ensure it evolves with your customers’ needs and preferences. This way, you’ll have a competitive edge in the ecommerce landscape and set yourself up for success.

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