{"id":4622,"date":"2022-03-15T16:59:54","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T16:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecartize.com\/?p=4622"},"modified":"2022-06-24T16:18:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T16:18:06","slug":"the-importance-of-e-commerce-customer-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecartize.com\/blog\/the-importance-of-e-commerce-customer-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"The importance of e-commerce customer journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A customer experience is defined by every touchpoint or interaction your customer does with your brand. From customers discovering your brand for the first time to visiting your online e-commerce store to make their first purchase, every factor defines what your customers think about your company and how likely they will purchase from you again. The internet is full of online e-commerce stores<\/a> for customers to choose from. Hence you need to understand the importance of e-commerce customer service to offer the best of your brand to your potential customers. This definitive article covers all aspects of a customer’s journey for e-commerce, telling you how to improve your customer’s online experience to enhance customer journey in e-commerce development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an E-commerce customer journey?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A customer journey for e-commerce is simply defined as the phases that customers go through while interacting with your e-commerce business to make a purchase. Like making sales is essential, your customers’ overall experience is equally important. Many factors determine a successful or an unsuccessful conversion. For example, the time your online store takes to load, how user-friendly is your interface, and how convenient is the whole process of making a purchase. It also comprises e-commerce development services like advertising, customer support, and how well the communication goes with a specific customer. Therefore, all of these factors determine the customer’s experience with your brand and how your overall e-commerce journey has been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phases of the customer journey for e-commerce<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So we now know that the e-commerce journey for customers is not only making a purchase from your online store. To develop a successful e-commerce business plan, we also know that understanding the five phases of the b2b e-commerce customer<\/a> journey is essential. We need to make sure this customer journey map is planned carefully and optimized as much as possible. Let us look at those five stages of a customer journey for e-commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awareness<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Like every journey, the starting point of an e-commerce business is raising awareness. This is simply a phase where your customers discover your brand for the first time. This is also the stage where you get to know where your customer actually found your online store. Was it via social media, search engines, or any other traditional medium? All these questions might lead you to find out what products or services your customers are interested in. This first phase is the learning phase, where you learn about your customer, and your customer learns about your brand simultaneously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consideration<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The second phase comprises your customer’s genuine interest in a specific product or service. From your perspective, this is the stage at which you can analyze what works for your e-commerce development and what does not. Based on these analytics, you can conveniently reduce bounce rates on the e-commerce website and encourage further searches by your customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversion<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These magic words determine the fundamental importance of the e-commerce customer journey. However, this stage still does not mean a guaranteed sale, but this might mean that your customer has added a product in the cart or to their wishlist for buying later. From a business owner’s perspective, you must deliver any promise you made to get your customer to reach this point. These deliveries include all the e-commerce management services, such as marketing, sales, customer support, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retention<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Making one sale is always good, but retaining that same customer is excellent. This clearly indicates that your customers are delighted with your services and would shop again, whenever needed. From a business perspective, you should work hard to enhance the customer journey in e-commerce by providing the best service possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocacy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When a customer is delighted with your product or service, he becomes the best brand advocate. If you pass the fourth stage successfully, you will gain a lifetime brand ambassador who will promote your brand by interacting actively. They will do that through every touchpoint of your e-commerce business like blogs, homepage, social media and recommend you by posting reviews on your website or on their own social platforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to build a map for customer journey for e-commerce?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A map for e-commerce customer journey is basically a visualization of all experiences that your customers have with your e-commerce organization. Building a map will allow you to understand the importance of the e-commerce customer journey, identify your strengths and weaknesses of e-commerce development services, and improve them if needed. Here is how you can start mapping your customer journey for e-commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perspective<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You need to think like your customer by visiting your own website and building a review based on your experience when you saw your own website. Take notes on customer touchpoints. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Research your brand deeply by putting together a focus group that would buy from your brand and gives honest reviews about your services and their overall experience with your website. This way, you can enhance your e-commerce development services by having a more comprehensive view of your customers’ interactions and touchpoints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Now that you better understand how your customers would most likely feel when navigating through your e-commerce website, your primary aim should be to have your website optimized at every touchpoint your customers have identified. For example, your social media, search engines, or other review websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visualization<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You cannot keep all this information just in your mind. Thus, a visual that is easy to look at and understand is essential. Once you visualize your map, it would become convenient for you to enhance the customer journey in e-commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of e-commerce customer journey<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your customers are more likely to retain if they had an excellent customer experience from your brand. This is why owners have modified their e-commerce business plan and shifted their focus to provide a pleasant e-commerce customer journey to attract new customers while retaining the existing ones. Here are a few reasons why a good customer journey for e-commerce is essential to add to your e-commerce business plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n