The customer journey is the heartbeat of any retailer. Grasping the distinct stages that customers navigate from the moment they discover your brand to making a purchase is essential.
This article explores the detailed aspects of mapping the retail customer journey and highlights its importance in today’s fast-changing market landscape. Let’s take a look at retail customer journeys.
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- 5 stages of a retail customer journey
- How to make a customer journey map
- Tips to mapping our journeys
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
- Retention
- Advocacy
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- Enhance your content: Use case studies, blogs, guides, and videos to provide in-depth insights into your offerings and demonstrate how they solve the customer’s problems.
- Engage with your audience: Implement webinars, Q&As, or chat support to engage directly with prospects and address their concerns and queries.
- Show your expertise: Offer free trials, samples, or demo videos to allow potential customers to experience your product or service firsthand.
- Free trials
- Preferred payment methods available
- Coupons
- Newsletters
- Exclusive discount codes
- Customer rewards
- Cross-selling products
- Define Clear Objectives: Begin by identifying the specific goals you want to achieve with your journey map. Are you looking to improve customer retention, reduce churn, or enhance the buying experience? Clearly defined objectives will guide your mapping process.
- Understand Your Customer Persona: Develop detailed customer personas representing various segments of your audience. Consider their demographics, preferences, needs, and pain points. The more detailed your persona, the more tailored your journey map will be.
- Identify Touchpoints: List all the points of interaction your customer has with your business. This includes online channels, physical stores, customer service, and social media. Remember to consider both direct and indirect touchpoints.
- Map Out the Stages: Organize these touchpoints into the five key stages of the journey: Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Retention, and Advocacy. Illustrating each stage helps you see how customers move through the journey.
- Gather Data: Use data from customer feedback, surveys, and analytics to identify trends and behaviors at each touchpoint. Customer feedback is invaluable for understanding how they perceive and interact with your brand.
- Visualize the Journey: Use tools like flowcharts, infographics, or dedicated journey mapping software to create a visual representation of your customer journey. Ensure it is easy to understand and accessible to all stakeholders.
- Analyze and Optimize: Regularly review and refine your map. Detect areas where customers experience friction and brainstorm solutions to enhance their experience. The retail landscape evolves, and so should your customer journey map.
5 stages of a retail customer journey
The most commonly accepted terms for the five stages of a retail customer journey are:
The B2C sales cycle has multiple touch points from pre-sale interactions, to customers visiting in-store and increasing foot traffic, to customers advocating for the business by leaving positive reviews. While traditionally retail customer journeys have been seen as linear, modern retailers see customer journeys as non-linear. Customers may jump from stage to stage in non-linear order.
At pass_by, we offer the highest in market accuracy with 94% correlation to ground truth, over 15 data inputs, and a full 90 days of predictive feeds. Book a call now.
1. Awareness
At this stage, potential customers acknowledge they have a problem that requires a solution or an opportunity they wish to explore, which prompts them to begin seeking information. This is where a brand’s visibility plays a crucial role. Crafting compelling content, whether through blog posts, social media, or informative videos, is essential for capturing their attention. It’s about making a memorable first impression.
The goal is for the brand to appear as a viable solution during their search. The key is to provide value without overtly pushing for a sale. Instead, focus on delivering valuable insights and building credibility. For instance, offering a comprehensive guide that addresses common customer concerns.
In essence, the awareness stage is all about introducing your brand in a way that aligns with the customer’s initial discovery and interest, setting the stage for deeper engagement as they move forward in their journey.
Examples of the Awareness stage include:
How to measure the Awareness stage
2. Consideration
Once a potential customer is aware of your brand, they enter the consideration phase. Here, they begin to delve deeper, seeking more detailed information about the products or services you offer. This stage is essential, and your goal is to provide value, answer questions, and stand out from competitors.
During the consideration phase, customers may create a “consideration set.” This is essentially a shortlist of brands or products they are seriously contemplating–this can be mental notes or a physical list. Your task is to earn a spot on this list and then move towards securing the top position.
To thrive at this juncture, focus on building trust and credibility. Provide comprehensive details about your product features, benefits, and unique selling points. Compare and contrast with competitors, highlight customer testimonials, or showcase case studies.
How to improve the Consideration stage
Making a compelling case during the consideration phase is crucial as it paves the way toward the subsequent stages of the customer journey, culminating in a hopefully favorable purchase decision.
Read more: The Future of Shopping Malls
3. Decision
After thoroughly considering their options, customers arrive at the Decision stage. At this point, it’s all about facilitating the choice and ensuring the path to purchase is as smooth and frictionless as possible. Here, customers are ready to commit, so offering a streamlined and seamless experience is crucial to clinching the deal.
First, you’ll want to make sure that every potential touchpoint—be it your website, search engines, or email communications—is optimized for ease of use. Ensuring that your checkout process is intuitive and free from unnecessary steps will greatly enhance the likelihood of a successful purchase.
Also, consider ramping up the customer support during this stage. Live chat options, accessible customer service representatives, or comprehensive FAQs can help address any last-minute concerns or questions that customers may have. Your responsiveness could be the deciding factor for them.
Additionally, this is the perfect time to highlight any unique selling points (USPs) that set your product or service apart. Whether it’s a limited-time discount or a value-added benefit like free shipping or an extended warranty, these incentives can tip the scales in your favor.
Ultimately, the goal during the Decision stage is to provide clear, concise information and a hassle-free experience. By doing so, you not only encourage customers to complete their purchase but also foster a positive impression that can lead to repeat business and advocacy.
Examples of the Decision stage include:
4. Retention
Once a customer has made a purchase, the journey doesn’t end—it’s just beginning. The Retention stage is pivotal in fostering long-term relationships and encouraging repeat business. It’s here where your efforts should shift to keeping customers engaged and satisfied, minimizing any reasons for them to leave to a competitor.
A few key strategies can effectively boost retention. Start by ensuring a solid onboarding experience. New customers should feel welcomed and informed about how to get the most out of their purchase. This can lay the groundwork for continued engagement and satisfaction.
Additionally, provide prompt and attentive customer service. Timely responses to inquiries or issues can turn a potentially negative experience into a positive one, showing customers that you value their business and are there to support them.
Remember, increasing customer retention by as little as 5% can result in profit increases of 25% to 95%. Therefore, it’s a worthwhile investment to identify any pain points in the customer journey and address these promptly. Utilize channels like your website, live chat, email, and social media to remain consistently engaged with your customers.
Ultimately, focus on making your customers happy. A satisfied customer is more likely to transition from one-time buyer to a loyal advocate of your brand, significantly enhancing retention and engagement.
Examples of the Retention stage include:
5. Advocacy
At this stage, customers transition from being satisfied users to advocates for your brand. It’s a pivotal phase where customers not only remain loyal but actively promote your products and services to others. Advocacy is fueled by exceptional experiences that resonate and leave a lasting impression. To harness this potential, focus on building lasting relationships by providing unparalleled support and consistent engagement.
To nurture the Advocacy stage of the retail customer journey, foster a sense of community by encouraging feedback, offering exclusive benefits, and recognizing loyal customers.
Word of mouth remains a powerful tool, so incentivize referrals through reward programs. Authentic customer stories and testimonials can also enhance your reach and credibility.
Remember, advocacy isn’t just about your customers talking positively about your brand. It’s about them feeling genuinely connected and valued. When your customers become advocates, they serve as influential extensions of your marketing efforts. This organically boosts your brand’s credibility, attracting new members into your community.
Read more: How Automation and Video Technology are Shaping the Future of Retail
How to make a retail customer journey map
Creating a retail customer journey map involves understanding and visualizing the pathways your customers follow from discovering your brand to becoming loyal advocates. Let’s break down the steps:
By following these steps, your customer journey map will serve as a powerful tool to enhance customer experience and drive business success. Engage with your team and customers to ensure the map remains accurate and effective over time.
At pass_by, we offer the highest in market accuracy with 94% correlation to ground truth, over 15 data inputs, and a full 90 days of predictive feeds. Book a call now.
Tips to map a customer journey in retail
1. Create customer personas. The first step is to identify the different types of customers you have and then segment customers using psychographic, location, shopping, behavioral, foot traffic, survey, and demographic data. This will build the foundation of your retail customer journey map.
2. Define the stages. The most commonly used five stages are Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Retention and Advocacy. But, depending on your business, you may wish to change these stages – add more, remove, or redefine as needed.
3. Define your touchpoints. Touchpoints are moments where customers interact with your business. This can include social posts, visiting your store, making a purchase, making a review, reading an e-mail, etc.
4. Customer actions. To build out your map further, include what your customer may feel, think, and do at every stage and touchpoint. For example, after an e-mail about a sale they may feel curious and take action by clicking a link to your website.
5. Room for improvement. It’s often the case that when building our a customer journey map, you notice that your interactions and touchpoints could be improved. Leave room for improvement and take note of where you think opportunities could be made, such as optimizing touchpoints with a low conversion rate.
At pass_by, we offer the highest in market accuracy with 94% correlation to ground truth, over 15 data inputs, and a full 90 days of predictive feeds. Book a call now.
FAQs
What is a retail customer journey map?
A retail customer journey map is an insightful tool that businesses use to visualize and analyze the journey a customer takes from the initial contact with a brand to becoming a loyal advocate. This map illustrates the various stages of the customer experience, documenting touch points, interactions, and the emotions customers feel along their journey.
Customer journey maps are important in retail to gain valuable insights into customer needs and expectations, allowing them to enhance customer satisfaction and optimize touch points for a seamless experience.
What is a customer journey cycle?
The customer journey cycle refers to the comprehensive sequence of experiences a customer goes through when interacting with a brand, product, or service. Unlike the linear model of awareness, consideration, and purchase, the cycle is an ongoing process that often loops. This journey typically involves several stages, including pre-purchase awareness, active consideration, the purchase decision, post-purchase evaluation, and ultimately, advocacy.
Each stage of the journey cycle offers unique touchpoints where businesses can engage and influence their customers. For instance, during the awareness stage, potential customers find out about your products through ads or social media. As they move into the consideration phase, they may visit your website, read reviews, or interact with your sales team.
Importance of the Journey Cycle
Understanding this cycle helps businesses design strategies that enhance customer experienceat each stage. A well-mapped journey cycle identifies gaps and opportunities for improvement, offering potential to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Incorporating feedback and analytics can refine this cycle further, ensuring that each customer feels valued throughout their journey. Remember, fostering positive experiences across the customer journey cycle isn’t just about making a sale—it’s about building long-term relationships.
What is the difference between buyers journey vs customer journey?
The main difference between the buyer’s journey vs the customer journey is that the buyer journey follows and ends at the customer making a purchase, while the customer journey continues on after the transaction is made.
What is the retail customer experience?
Retail customer experience (retail CX) is the act of delivering amazing service to customers in your store and across your channels at every touchpoint. From discovery, to transaction, to advocacy, retail customer experience is about making that journey as good as possible so customers are satisfied and return to buy again.
