Understanding The Customer Journey In Multi-Channel Ecommerce

It's no longer enough to ask "Are we ranking?" Instead, the real question is: “Are we meeting the user at every point in their decision journey?” Most brands still approach SEO as a one-channel game, optimizing content solely for Google and hoping that visibility leads to conversions. But today's buyer journey is no longer confined to one platform, one format, or even one moment in time. People now move fluidly across multiple platforms: TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Google, Amazon, ChatGPT… depending on their intent, curiosity, and trust in the medium. They’re not just searching; they’re comparing, validating, watching, reading, and revisiting before making a decision. Mapping the complete journey helps you answer that. For every stage: 1. Discover, 2. Compare, 3. Act, You need to identify three things: 1. what the user is searching for, 2. where they go to find the answer,  3. and what format they expect it in. In the discovery phase, they might start with a short-form TikTok video or an Instagram reel that introduces the product concept. They might click into a blog post that educates them on why something matters or how it works. As they move into comparison mode, they’ll likely Google branded terms, look for Reddit threads discussing real experiences, or watch YouTube reviews to hear honest opinions. Finally, when they’re ready to act, they’ll compare listings on Amazon or check product pages on the official website before completing their purchase. This isn’t a straight path, it’s a web of behavior. A user might revisit the same product on multiple platforms, cross-check reviews across Reddit and Amazon, or go from a YouTube review back to a TikTok ad just to confirm their gut feeling. The time span can range from minutes to weeks. That’s why understanding the journey is essential. Because if you're only optimizing one part of it, you’re invisible in the rest. Search Everywhere Optimization doesn’t just acknowledge this complexity, it embraces it. By meeting users where they already search and adapting to the behaviors they already exhibit, your brand becomes discoverable in the moments that matter most. That’s how trust is built. That’s how action is earned. And that’s how visibility stops being a ranking and starts being a presence.

If your customer journey map has 5 stages, you’re thinking like a marketer. If it has 27, you’re finally thinking like a customer. Most retention strategies fail because they’re too simple. → Awareness → Interest → Purchase → Repeat → Advocate That’s not how people buy. They go through: • Scrolling in bed → • Seeing an ad twice → • Googling → • Reading reviews → • DM’ing a friend → • Leaving the tab open → • Finally buying ...and then: → Waiting for delivery → Trying it once → Not sure how to use it → Remembering it during travel → Using it daily → Getting compliments → Wanting a second one Map it all out. Every moment is a chance to educate, earn trust, upsell, or reassure. Not every stage needs an email. But every stage needs consideration.

For years, companies have been leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to provide personalized customer experiences. One widespread use case is showing product recommendations based on previous data. But there's so much more potential in AI that we're just scratching the surface. One of the most important things for any company is anticipating each customer's needs and delivering predictive personalization. Understanding customer intent is critical to shaping predictive personalization strategies. This involves interpreting signals from customers’ current and past behaviors to infer what they are likely to need or do next, and then dynamically surfacing that through a platform of their choice. Here’s how: 1. Customer Journey Mapping: Understanding the various stages a customer goes through, from awareness to purchase and beyond. This helps in identifying key moments where personalization can have the most impact. This doesn't have to be an exercise on a whiteboard; in fact, I would counsel against that. Journey analytics software can get you there quickly and keep journeys "alive" in real time, changing dynamically as customer needs evolve. 2. Behavioral Analysis: Examining how customers interact with your brand, including what they click on, how long they spend on certain pages, and what they search for. You will need analytical resources here, and hopefully you have them on your team. If not, find them in your organization; my experience has been that they find this type of exercise interesting and will want to help. 3. Sentiment Analysis: Using natural language processing to understand customer sentiment expressed in feedback, reviews, social media, or even case notes. This provides insights into how customers feel about your brand or products. As in journey analytics, technology and analytical resources will be important here. 4. Predictive Analytics: Employing advanced analytics to forecast future customer behavior based on current data. This can involve machine learning models that evolve and improve over time. 5. Feedback Loops: Continuously incorporate customer signals (not just survey feedback) to refine and enhance personalization strategies. Set these up through your analytics team. Predictive personalization is not just about selling more; it’s about enhancing the customer experience by making interactions more relevant, timely, and personalized. This customer-led approach leads to increased revenue and reduced cost-to-serve. How is your organization thinking about personalization in 2024? DM me if you want to talk it through. #customerexperience #artificialintelligence #ai #personalization #technology #ceo

Are you leaving money on the table? My bulletproof system to find out and fix it. I've spent the last 6+ years helping 100s of entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses grow faster. This is how I diagnose where they can quickly 2-3x profits. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗢𝗻𝗲: 𝗠𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 What are the steps someone takes to become a happy, paying customer? - How do they get to the website? - How do they become a lead? - How do they start a sales conversation? - How do they become a customer? - How do they experience value? - How do they refer a friend? - How do they churn? 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗧𝘄𝗼: 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀. Create a boring old spreadsheet with the conversion rates of each stage of the buyer's journey. 𝘋𝘰 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺. Then, track the numbers week over week for the last 6 months. You will instantly notice issues: - Bottlenecks - Huge drop-offs - Lack of progress Quantitative data helps spot patterns. Qualitative data tells you why they exist. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲: 𝗗𝗶𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗛𝗬 - Talk to your team to get their thoughts - Ask recent customers about their journey - Review it all from your buyer's perspective 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗿: 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 Plan them in 3 categories: 1. Low-hanging fruit Simple changes you can make in a few hours. - Add a Contact Us form to the website - Automate sales meeting reminders - Edit your LinkedIn profile 2. Process tweaks Changes you can make to things you are ALREADY doing. - Bring in legal sooner in the sales process - Send a custom video to new prospects - Templatize your proposals 3. Long term projects These will have the biggest impact, but take the longest time. - Rewrite your sales onboarding process - Create a new marketing funnel - Develop a new offer/product 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗲, 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 Start putting your plan into action! But keep tracking your metrics to see how they change over time. Are they improving? If not, why not? If so, how can we double down? Simple, but effective as hell. Give it a try, and let me know what you find. If you want help, DM me or book some time. ♻️ Repost if this helped or inspired 🔔 Follow me, Kasey Jones for more 👇 Become your industry's go-to expert

Ecommerce stores can learn a LOT from brick and mortar. 'Digital marketing' isn't really a thing anymore - it's just marketing. Software and the internet ate the world. The lines between physical and digital are blurring, if they still exist at all. And the best brands treat their ecommerce experience a lot like an IRL store. → Personalization: Just as a good retail salesperson in a physical store can help a first time shopper or remember a returning customer’s preferences, ecommerce platforms should leverage data to personalize the shopping experience. → Immersive experiences: Brick-and-mortar stores have the advantage of creating sensory-rich environments. Ecommerce stores can replicate this by investing in high-quality content, virtual try-ons and 360-degree product views. There used to be an excuse that your product is 'difficult to sell online', but it's been busted. If people buy sunglasses, mattresses, and cars online - then you can definitely find a way to make your product more immersive. → Trustworthy customer service: For many shoppers, a helpful store assistant can make or break a sale. Ecommerce stores should focus on excellent customer service through live chat, and responsive customer support that goes the extra mile. → Leverage Data for continuous improvement: Physical stores often use foot traffic and sales data to optimize store layouts and merchandise. Ecommerce stores should use website analytics to understand customer behavior, optimize the sales funnel, and refine the user journey. It’s a no-brainer for brands to gather heat maps and customer feedback to unlock valuable insights into improving the online shopping experience. → Omnichannel: Successful brands integrate their online, offline, and marketplace channels to create a cohesive shopping experience. Features like BOPIS, Buy with Prime, and seamless returns across channels can enhance customer convenience and satisfaction. → Community engagement: Brick-and-mortar stores often serve as community hubs, hosting events and fostering a sense of belonging. Ecommerce brands should build communities with their audience so customers can engage with each other, as well as with the brand directly. → Innovative tech stack: IRL stores are investing heavily into technology, from POS to loyalty and beyond. Your ecommerce experience should feel fresh, easy, and exciting if you’re going to stand out in a sea of competitors. Ensuring that promotions, loyalty programs, and customer data are unified across channels strengthens brand consistency. Anything I'm missing?

Most brands think checkout is where they lose customers. Reality check 👉 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲. 🔻 At the top of the funnel (ToFu): Your site loads too slow → Customers bounce before they even see your products. Navigation is confusing → They don’t know where to go, so they leave. Messaging is vague → They don’t see why your product is different. 🔻 In the middle (MoFu): Product pages are vague → They don’t feel confident to buy. Hidden shipping costs → They hesitate and second-guess. Too many choices → Decision fatigue kicks in, and they leave. 🔻 At checkout (BoFu): No Apple Pay or PayPal → They don’t feel like digging out their card. Long forms → Too much effort, so they quit. Surprise fees → Trust is gone. And even 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 they buy? A bad post-purchase experience means zero repeat customers. Stop focusing only on checkout. Your funnel isn’t broken at one stage. It’s leaking customers everywhere. So track where people get stuck and fix friction at every step. One click too many is one customer too few. Friction is costing you sales. The question is—where? #Ecommerce #CustomerJourney #UX #Conversion Follow me for weekly updates on the latest tools and trends in UX and productivity.

Understanding the customer journey is often perceived as a linear path—a series of steps neatly aligned with the progression through the sales funnel. However, this approach fails to capture the nuanced reality of customer interactions and needs. More often than not, businesses view the customer journey solely through the lens of their own deal process, neglecting the diverse needs and maturity levels of their customers. Let's face it: customers are not robots following a predetermined route. They are dynamic individuals with unique experiences, preferences, and evolving needs. This is where the disconnection arises. While businesses may have a clear roadmap of their sales process, they often overlook where the customer stands in their own maturity and needs cycle. Imagine navigating through a labyrinth where each turn presents new challenges and opportunities. That's precisely how the customer journey should be perceived—a maze of possibilities where customers may take unexpected detours, encounter obstacles, and seek alternative routes to their desired destination. At its core, customer journey mapping isn't about imposing a rigid structure; it's about empathizing with the customer's journey and providing guidance and support along the way. It's about recognizing that customers may enter at different stages, engage with multiple touchpoints, and require tailored experiences based on their unique circumstances. Instead of viewing the customer journey as a linear progression from awareness to conversion, businesses must embrace its dynamic nature. It's about adapting to the twists and turns, understanding the motivations behind each decision, and guiding customers towards meaningful outcomes. By acknowledging the complexity of the customer journey, businesses can better align their strategies with customer needs, preferences, and expectations. It's not about forcing customers down a predetermined path; it's about empowering them to navigate the maze on their terms, providing assistance when needed and fostering genuine connections along the way. In essence, customer journey mapping isn't just about mapping out touchpoints—it's about mapping out experiences, emotions, and interactions. It's about recognizing that the customer journey is a labyrinth—a journey of discovery, exploration, and growth. And only by embracing its complexity can businesses truly unlock the full potential of their customer relationships. #CX #CustomerJourney #Marketing #Sales #Business

The customer journey is the most important thing to get right and the easiest thing to get wrong. Here’s the key to doing it well: The best customer journeys have two fundamental traits. • Specificity • Consistency You have to make sure your messaging speaks to a specific consumer base, then make sure that message never changes. Here’s how… Top of Funnel: Generic vs. Focused Are you speaking broadly about your product to a wide audience? Or are you speaking in a focused manner to a focused audience? The difference is crucial — The more focused your approach at the top of the funnel, the more successful the entire funnel will become. This means that your messages is focused on a single customer profile and a single theme. A Consistent Buying Experience Is the buying experience consistent throughout the customer journey? For example: If an advertisement promotes the benefits of a sweater for outdoor activities, then the product page shouldn’t include pictures of people wearing it around their home (it happens more than you think) Always ask yourself: Does the buying experience reflect the problem that the top-of-funnel messaging initially identified? Connect the Offer Does your offer actually connect with your initial message? A good offer might provide a discount that’s relevant to the initial message. A great offer is one that builds an entire package/offering to solve the problem identified in the initial messaging. Back to the example: If you buy the “outdoor recreation package” (the sweater and two other outdoor apparel items), you get a bigger discount on all three. Striking A Balance How do you maintain a balance between specificity and consistency? After all, your product probably has more than one niche target customer. The answer is simple: Build multiple specific funnels with consistent messaging. Want To Learn More? I’ll be posting more here on LinkedIn with some best practices on customer journey optimization based on the data we see coming in from thousands of FERMAT shopping experiences. Follow along if that sounds helpful 🤝

Stop chasing shadows in your demand generation. The issue isn't your strategy; it's your understanding of the buyer's journey. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵. ↳ They navigate a maze of choices and influences, making linear strategies a NULL point. Also, life happens to us all, including your potential buyers. 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱. ↳ Prospects interact with a myriad of ads and platforms, diluting the impact of singular channel focus. You cannot set yourself up for disappointment by thinking of anything other. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗵, not a straight line. ↳ It's characterized by complexity, unpredictability, and the nuanced behaviors of potential customers navigating through a sea of information. Interest does not equal intent. Browsing isn't buying. Recognize the difference. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲: Assuming a linear path ignores the reality that potential customers wander, often aimlessly, through digital landscapes, driven by curiosity rather than clear intent. Our advertising efforts fall short when they fail to recognize that engagement does not equate to readiness or willingness to purchase. Forcing a linear model leads to marketing misfires, with messages that either overshoot or miss the target altogether, failing to meet the buyer where they truly are. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄. 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆 𝗢𝗺𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀: ↳ Dominate every platform. Your visibility should be ubiquitous, leaving no digital stone unturned. 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲-𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 ↳ Deliver exactly what your audience needs if and when they are in different stages. No fluff, just precision. The buyer's journey is a labyrinth, not a straight line. Conquer it with omnichannel strategies, pinpoint content, and use data to help inform the when, where, and how in a logical but NOT overly technical way. It's time to meet buyers on THEIR journey, not the journey you wish they were on. #Marketing is not magic; it's a means of communication. #demandgen #demandgeneration #b2b #b2bsaas #saas #paidmedia #advertising