What Is the Customer Purchase Journey of an Internet User?

According to an Ipsos study: 9 out of 10 buyers are not entirely certain of the brand they want to purchase when they begin their information search. Their purchasing decision will therefore be influenced by numerous factors, including the quality of the customer purchase journey and the satisfaction they feel at each stage of the process! Do you want to multiply your sales opportunities by offering an adapted and personalized experience to your prospects? You’re in the right place! In this article, Trustt explains what the customer purchase journey of an internet user is, as well as its key stages. Follow the guide!

Definition of the Customer Purchase Journey Concept

The customer purchase journey, also called buyer persona journey in English, refers to the entire path taken and all the steps and actions undertaken by a prospect or customer from the moment they become aware of their need until the moment they decide to take action and make a purchase.

This customer purchase journey encompasses the entire experience lived by the customer (emotions, negative or positive feelings, etc.) at each stage of this process.

Depending on the product or service to be purchased, the customer purchase journey can take more or less time and be more or less complex.

For example, purchasing a computer may take several weeks before the consumer decides to buy it. In contrast, the decision-making process for buying a pair of shoes or a bag can be much quicker.

Moreover, depending on the product, the journey may require the use of multiple marketing channels: website, forums, social networks, instant messaging, customer reviews on Google, etc.

E-commerce companies must be able to perfectly understand each stage of this customer purchase journey in order to define the right marketing messages, deliver them to the right consumers, at the right moments, and thus be able to guide their prospects to conversion.

Studying the various touchpoints of customers with your products or services on the Internet will allow you to optimize your digital marketing actions and advertising investments. You can also continuously improve the customer purchase experience and thus generate better satisfaction from your consumers.

Key Stages of the Customer Purchase Journey

There are 3 stages in a consumer’s online customer purchase journey that e-commerce companies must take into account:

Stage 1 of the Customer Purchase Journey: Awareness

The first phase of the customer purchase journey of a consumer on the Internet begins with the realization of a need or a problem.

At this awakening stage, your prospect still doesn’t know how to fulfill this need and doesn’t have the answer to their problem.

In order to find the solution or find the right product or service that suits them, the internet user will search for information online, using several marketing channels: website, social networks, blog, forums, etc.

This stage is crucial for your company! This is when you must anticipate all the needs of your personas and the solutions to provide them.

Necessarily, you must have previously well-defined who your personas are and know them inside out. Note that there are as many buyer persona journeys as there are personas.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What are the needs and expectations of my typical customers? What are their purchasing motivations? What are their problems?

To attract your personas during this awareness phase, you must offer them informative content and show them how you are there to help. It is at this stage that it is essential to implement a well-crafted content marketing strategy also known as an inbound marketing strategy. This is your best chance to make contact with your prospects!

Your content must be relevant, informative, and of high quality for internet users, but also well optimized for Google.

For example, offer blog articles, ebooks, regular social media posts, a Facebook group, etc.

This way, you will be more attractive to your prospects and customers on the internet.

List all the keywords that address the potential needs or problems of your personas and create content that answers their questions. This SEO work is essential because by choosing the right keywords, your content will be better ranked on search engines, which will allow you to be more visible and thus increase the number of visits to your website.

One more visitor to your website is one more chance to attract a future consumer and make a sale at the last stage of the customer purchase journey. You must therefore do everything to attract visitors to your website in order to maximize conversions.

Step 2 of the customer journey: consideration

Now your prospects know that solutions to their need or problem exist. They are pushing their research a little further to find the most suitable product or service.

You must give them content that explains in detail what you offer and highlights your added value. The goal is for them to choose your brand in the next step rather than one of your competitors.

Prioritize content such as: explanatory videos, product guides, podcasts, etc.

This content should give them advice, tips, and techniques that can address their issues and allow them to discover how and in what context to use your product.

At this stage, the idea of acquiring your product or service is slowly making its way into the minds of your prospects…

Moreover, one of the keys to success for e-commerce businesses at this consideration stage is to be in constant anticipation.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What are the strengths and weaknesses of competing brands? Similarly, what are my company’s strengths to highlight and what are the obstacles that could block my future customers?

Step 3 of the customer journey: conversion

This is the “decisive stage of the buyer persona journey! Your prospects are ready to move on to the” final step: purchasing your product or service.

At this stage of the customer journey, internet users have a short list of brands that meet their needs and budget.

To make their purchase decision, prospects will rely on existing customer reviews on the Internet. Indeed, faced with the multitude of similar offers on the web, more and more Internet users are searching for other opinions before making their decision. These customer reviews are very important for your business, as they reassure and reinforce your prospects in their purchase decision. Don’t neglect them!

Trustt is a SaaS software that collects detailed and authentic reviews from consumers and influencers about your products.

The Trustt customer review module allows consumers to give their feedback on all aspects of your products. This will allow you to:

• Reassure your future customers about the effectiveness of your products;
• Use their customer feedback for continuous improvement;
• Boost your reputation and conversions!

You can also offer them content to help them in their purchase decision such as customer interviews, free trial periods, video tutorials, detailed product sheets, etc.

The goal here is to differentiate yourself from competing brands by highlighting the advantages of your product or service offering.

You now have a better understanding of the steps in your customers’ online buying journey! Don’t hesitate to equip yourself with specialized tools such as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to help you manage all the data collected about your customers at each stage of the purchasing journey! This way, you can better utilize this data and implement marketing actions tailored to each step of the customer’s buying journey.