Take Your Users on a Journey: The Secret to E-commerce Success

Creating a GREAT first, second, third, nth impression is important for a brand's success. Here I talk about a bunch of ideas to delight and more importantly not annoy your customer.

Mapping the journey

At each stage of the customer journey, we try to imagine what the user is thinking, what problems they experience, their general sentiment, and our opportunity to make their experience with our brand awesome!

Here’s a visual of what to get right, aka the basics!

(I used a ‘Whimsical’ template that’s free use to plan a hypothetical brand’s journey)

Here are some ideas to delight your customer, get these right and you are setup for lasting success.

Discover:

Think about the last time you stumbled upon a brand. Maybe you discovered it on TikTok or Instagram or Youtube or via a Google search. Whatever be the means, you had zero idea of what the brand is about. When you look at the website - your brain takes a few seconds to scan and see if something sticks out. A catchy name, an inspiring image, a memorable product tag line, slick design aesthetic - something to stand apart. Imagine this was the front window of your physical store - what might be reasons for a customer to make a decision to walk in?

Consider:

Here is your chance to showcase the broad range of products available, but in a non-obvious organized way. Show images, videos of product shoots to continue holding onto the user’s attention. Pique their interest with interesting product names, pricing, discounts, easily browsable catalog or search. As the customer looks at the products, you want them to imagine the best version of themselves with your product.

A pro tip here is to make sure your website works and loads fast on mobile or desktop. If things are slow to show up on the screen, you’ve lost them :(

Buy:

Let’s say you’ve convinced them enough to consider spending money on your product! Congrats!! We gotta make sure they follow through by making it stupid easy to buy the product. Thankfully tools like Shopify make it easy to offer standard options - credit card, Paypal, shop pay, etc. Set it all up and let them customer make the decision that works best for them. The smoother the checkout experience, the lower the chances of the customer second guessing themselves.

Post Purchase:

You’d be surprised by how often the post purchase experience is ignored by new brands. ~2% of people get through to make a purchase, its our job to make them feel extra loved and special. How do we do this? First, set clear expectations on shipping and when they can receive their order. Second, use the moment to teach them about the brand values - Does a portion of the sales go to a good cause? Share the brand story. Help them learn more about the founder story, what goes on behind-the-scenes? Use the moment to build an emotional connection with the brand.

Delivery:

Ever since we were kids, packages(or gifts) have held a special place - the anticipation of opening the box, feeling the product in your hands for the first time, and the joy of the imagining all the times you can use the product - its a special moment. Think about how the outer package can reflect the brand name, maybe add a little thank you postcard inside, a small complimentary gift, and make sure the product itself stands out. Branding is key.