It’s no secret that online shopping is becoming more and more popular every day. According to recent research, there are now over 3 billion people worldwide that have bought something online at least once in their lives.
However, for some of these people it can be very difficult to find the right products to buy online. They may not know what they want or how to go about finding it. This can lead to frustration and disappointment.
In this article I’m going to talk about the customer journey and how you can use this information to help your customers find exactly what they’re looking for.
Customer Journey
When you think about your customer journey you should try to imagine yourself as a customer. You’re probably buying something from a shop, but before you get to the shop you’ve already been through a number of stages.
These stages are:
* Awareness
* Interest
* Desire
* Action
* Evaluation
* Purchase
Awareness
If you don’t have any idea what you’re looking for then you won’t know if you’ve found it. So, the first thing you need to do is find out what you’re looking for.
For example, if you want to buy a new laptop then you need to know what features you need. You also need to know what type of budget you have available. If you don’t know these things then you’ll waste time looking for products that you won’t be able to afford.
Interest
Once you know what you want then you need to start thinking about the next stage of your journey. You need to find out whether you’re interested in a particular product.
You need to decide whether you want to buy the product online or off line. This will depend on how much you know about the product and where you live. For example, if you live in the UK you may prefer to buy from a local store, whereas if you live in the USA you may prefer to buy from an online retailer.
Desire
Now you know that you want to buy the product you need to start thinking about how much you want it. Are you looking for a bargain? Do you want to buy a product that you can resell? Or, are you looking for a quality product that you can keep for years?
All of these questions need to be answered before you can decide which products to buy.
Action
Once you’ve decided that you want to buy the products you need to start looking for them. If you’re buying from a local store then you’ll need to look around the shops. If you’re buying from an online retailer then you’ll need to look for the products on the website.
Evaluation
After you’ve found the products you need then you need to decide whether they’re the right products for you. This is a critical part of your customer journey because if you make the wrong decision then you could end up with a product that doesn’t meet your needs.
Purchase
Finally, you need to complete your purchase. There are a number of different ways to pay for the products you’re buying. You may choose to pay by credit card or you may choose to pay using cash or a cheque.
There are many other stages to your customer journey, but hopefully this article has given you a good overview of the main stages.
