How can I improve my customer journey on my website?
In today’s digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial for businesses. However, simply having a website is not enough. To truly succeed in the competitive online marketplace, businesses must ensure that their website is optimized to provide a seamless and enjoyable customer experience. In this blog post, we will explore the concept of barriers to entry, specifically focusing on how they can hinder the customer journey on a website. By understanding and addressing these barriers, businesses can enhance their website’s usability, increase conversions, and ultimately, boost their success.
What are the barriers in a Customer’s Journey?
Before we delve into the solutions, it is essential to identify the barriers that can hinder your customer’s journey on a website. Every customer will be different. As an example, let’s consider Create Room, a furniture retailer, whose customer is a 55 year old Female. Some of the main barriers they face include the inability of customers to physically see and touch the furniture pieces, pricing that may be higher than competitors, and understanding the delivery experience to their doorstep. A smaller barrier could also be a broken link or a missing link on a CTA on your site.
Steps you need to take to identify barriers in a customer’s journey:
- Understand your customer. (Demographics, Psychographics)
- Find the most common path on your website to convert. (Google Analytics is a great tool for this)
- Analyze the data such as bounce rates, page views, time spent, exit rates, conversion rates, etc.
- View Heatmaps and Session Records. (A great tool is Microsoft Clarity and it’s FREE!)
- Conduct Surveys and Interviews: I like to ask those I know first and watch them go through the site as if they were to purchase. A post-purchase survey like Fairing is also a great way to understand the path they came from.
- Identify barriers: At this point, you should have a list of barriers to conversion.
Educating Customers and Simplifying the Buying Process:
To overcome these barriers, businesses must take proactive steps to educate customers and simplify the buying process. Understanding the customer’s journey from the homepage to the product page and finally to the cart is vital. However, it is equally important to consider alternative paths that customers may take, such as exploring different products or visiting resource pages. By comprehending these unique journeys, businesses can tailor their strategies to cater to each customer’s specific needs.
Reducing Barriers:
To reduce barriers and create a seamless experience, businesses should consider various approaches. For instance, incorporating live chat features can replace impersonal chatbots, offering customers a more engaging and personalized experience. This simple change can significantly increase conversion rates by ensuring customers feel heard and valued.
Steps to remove barriers:
- Hypothesize Solutions: This could include changing the design, improving website speed, simplifying the checkout process, etc.
- A/B Testing: This is a great tool to test your hypothesis. Google has free options that are as good as any paid.
- Implement Changes and Monitor Results: If the A/B tests are successful, implement the changes across your website and continue to monitor the results. Make sure to continuously update your customer journey map and repeat this process as necessary.
Drawing Inspiration from Amazon:
While every business is unique, there is much to learn from industry leaders like Amazon. Amazon’s success lies in its ability to reduce barriers and simplify the buying process. By eliminating unnecessary steps, such as cart views, and providing clear calls to action, Amazon creates a familiar and effortless shopping experience. Think of their buy now button that allows you to bypass the cart, some customers care about that even if you don’t. Taking inspiration from Amazon’s strategies, such as displaying customer reviews and frequently asked questions, can greatly enhance a website’s effectiveness. Even the orange color of Amazon is intentional to increase purchase behavior.
Conclusion:
In the competitive world of e-commerce, it is crucial for businesses to identify and address barriers to entry on their websites. By understanding the specific challenges customers face, businesses can develop targeted strategies to educate customers, simplify the buying process, and ultimately increase conversions. While replicating Amazon’s success may not be feasible for every business, drawing inspiration from their customer-centric approach can pave the way for improved website performance. By continuously striving to reduce barriers and provide a seamless experience, businesses can unlock their true potential in the online marketplace.
