The two-year period 2020-2021 saw the rapid change in consumer habits: customers still very much linked to physical stores, suddenly found themselves unable to go there, driven by the need to purchase online and to enter a new customer journey, that of e-commerce. According to data from the Politecnico di Milano, B2C e-commerce is a sector that recorded + 45% in 2020 and + 18% in 2021: we are talking about a turnover of 39.4 billion euros alone. for 2021. Staggering numbers if you think of the Italian commercial reality, which up to 3 years ago was still closely rooted in the territory and based on personal contact. But how does the e-commerce customer journey work?
The e-commerce customer journey
Awareness: the importance of brand knowledge in the e-commerce customer journey
All purchases, online and offline, begin in a single way: the customer has a need or desire to be satisfied by purchasing a product / service. Word of mouth, pop up, adv, newsletter, social media: the ways in which to become aware of a brand are potentially infinite and, also for this reason, diversifying advertising activities is almost always considered a wise choice.
Rational or emotional? The ping pong of the customer journey in ecommerce
There are now reasonableness and possibilities on the customer's scale, but these are just some of the factors that influence the purchase, which often also depends on emotional factors. If we choose a pair of Air Jordans it is not only for the quality of the materials or the cost, but in large part the status symbol they carry and the brand awareness of the brand counts. This reasoning, valid for any product, gradually becomes more and more decisive as we move towards luxury brands.
Being found to influence the customer journey
Information, information, information. At this point the customer journey branches out: there are as many branches as there are forums, sites, social networks and reviews that the consumer will visit to get more information and feedback on the product of his interest. Fundamental to promote the customer journey and purchase on e-commerce is the care of product descriptions which must be not only clear and complete, but also captivating and integrated with calls to action that prompt the user to purchase or contact the customer. company for further information, thus creating a preferential communication channel.
Finally the purchase: the fourth step of the customer journey
After having "studied" the product, the user is now ready to purchase: at this point of the journey it is very likely that he has already identified the seller, be it an online seller or a marketplace such as Amazon. It is the moment of conversion which, in the case of the customer journey for e-commere, is the actual purchase. The customer has chosen to give their trust to a specific online store. Most of it is done, but it doesn't stop there.
Loyalty and after-sales: the importance of trust in the e-commerce customer journey
For many, buying online is an enormous act of trust: accustomed to prolonged physical contact with a reality, buying online and perhaps even from a store located abroad, generates mistrust. One of the ways in which to stem this preventive mistrust is certainly after-sales assistance: the expert seller knows that the customer journey does not end with the purchase, but with all that fringe of activities that occur after the real sale. and own, such as assistance, review and loyalty. An attention to the customer that never ends, but translates into a virtuous circle, important for any business, especially at its beginnings.
