When marketers first began talking about customer journey mapping, they used a funnel as a model to discuss how customers moved through stages of awareness, consideration, and decision-making. A funnel, of course, was an appropriate model because customers moved in one direction.
Today, however, it’s time to rethink customer journey mapping – especially as it relates to ecommerce. Only 2% of customers today make a purchase on their first visit to a website, and the customer journey has more points of entry and exit than it used to- meaning that it’s easier than ever for customers to get distracted and fall of the path to purchase.
This is due to a combination of factors, one of which is the explosion of device-switching. Consumers today use a variety of devices throughout the path to purchase, and because of that, companies have to work harder to understand what the customer journey looks like. Here are three ways you can revamp your marketing strategies and available data to retain customers across devices.
- Create cross-device consistency. 67% of consumers jump between devices when online shopping, and if your ecommerce site isn’t responsive to different devices, your customers are likely to fall off the path to purchase. Need more convincing? Two out of three smartphone users say a mobile-friendly site will make them more likely to buy a company’s product or service.
- Create fast-loading content. If your website takes more than one second to load, your user will become distracted and lose focus on the purchasing task at hand. For example, when Firefox’s site loaded one second slower, their conversions dropped by 2.7%. Make sure to test how quickly your content loads across devices.
- Create a personal experience for your user through real-time marketing. Real-time marketing means that you know how a customer is interacting with your brand on any channel, and you use that information to respond to your customers in the moment. This marketing strategy increases conversion rates by an average of 26%, and consumers appreciate a personal touch too: 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that delivers customized, real-time content.
The customer journey has changed, but you can adjust your digital marketing strategies to account for how customers shop today. By making your ecommerce site responsive across devices, fast to load, and personal for each unique user, you can keep your customers focused on purchasing.
This blog was written by Tate Handy at Signal.
