Mapping the Modern Retail Customer Journey

The dynamic growth of online retail has delivered a number of benefits for consumers and retailers alike: shoppers experience an unparalleled convenience of shopping from home while retailers easily reach a global audience through just a few clicks. However, competition has complicated the process of driving physical footfall and closing a sale.

Against this backdrop, curating an effective customer journey has proven itself more important than ever. That means mapping out the process from initial discovery through evaluation to purchase, identifying every touchpoint and interaction. That way, retailers can pinpoint where customers abort their journeys and take targeted action to minimize friction.

Interested? Here’s how you can start optimizing each step of the process to boost conversions.

The Evolution of the Retail Customer Journey

In the days before online retail, customer journeys in the retail sector most often took place in physical locations. However, with digital retail technologies now ubiquitous, the default customer journey has evolved.

Distinct Phases in the Customer Journey

At the most basic level, we can break down the customer journey into three main phases:

1. Discovery: The customer encounters a product, brand, or retailer, and decides to explore further.

2. Evaluation: The customer examines the product, brand, or retailer in more detail, likely drawing on information from different sources.

3. Purchase: The customer decides on their chosen product from their preferred retailer and executes their purchase.

And, if we take a more holistic view of the customer journey, as more of a cycle than a linear journey from A to B, we should add a fourth phase:

1. Post-purchase: The customer engages with a retailer after completing their purchase, either for feedback or to pursue further purchases.

The Complexity of Phygital Retail

Customer journeys can be entirely physical, entirely digital, or a combination of the two, what some marketers and retailers dub “phygital”. Such approaches are becoming increasingly common as we move deeper into the hybrid age of retail, where the experiences on offer blur the lines between online and offline retail marketing.

A growing number of hybrid customers flit seamlessly between online tools and physical stores, so retailers should tailor their marketing strategies in response. At the same time, customer journeys are becoming more ramified, with potential paths branching off in different directions. Competition for customers’ attention online is fierce, while review platforms and comparison sites offer added information and choice.

With all that in mind, digital marketers should strive to curate a smooth, easy-to-navigate customer journey, integrating online and offline touchpoints at every stage.

How to Chart the Customer Journey

Whether you choose to use paper, a whiteboard, or digital tools, mapping out the customer journey can help to visualize a complex process. Drawing on analytic insights and customer feedback, you can highlight the most common progression routes from different starting points.

A comprehensive map is key to understanding your customer journey. Start by identifying every significant point of interaction between your brand and potential customers, highlighting every touchpoint from initial discovery to concluding an in-store visit. This includes potential detours to comparison websites and review platforms, and visits to your website’s locator pages and search engines’ map services.

At all stages, you can probably identify potential sources of friction. That tends to prove especially true for digital marketers managing multiple physical locations, who might notice discrepancies between different stores’ profiles.

Possible Customer Journey Pain Points

Inaccurate or Inconsistent Product Information

Customers may abandon their purchase journey if product descriptions, sizes, or availability are inconsistent or misleading across online platforms. Make sure product information is consistent and accurate across key touchpoints, from your website to third-party platforms and in-store displays. Regularly update your product catalogs to reflect the most current information, including stock levels.

Lack of Clear Location Information

If customers can’t easily find store hours, locations, or contact details, they may abandon their journey. Make sure store locator pages are easy to find and up-to-date, and ensure that business hours are consistent across platforms. Use Google My Business or other local directory tools to manage your physical location profiles.

Website Navigation Issues

Customers may struggle to find the products or information they need if the website is poorly organized or cluttered. Ensure your website is intuitive with a clear, easy-to-navigate menu. Use filters for product categories, and make sure the search function works effectively. Regularly test the user experience (UX) to identify and remove navigation roadblocks.

Slow Website Load Times

A slow-loading website can frustrate potential customers and cause them to leave before they even begin browsing. Optimize your website for speed by compressing images, reducing unnecessary scripts, and using faster hosting. Implementing a content delivery network (CDN) can also help to speed up load times, especially for customers in different geographical locations.

Poor Mobile Experience

Customers shopping on mobile devices may struggle with small images, hard-to-click buttons, or difficult navigation, leading to frustration. Optimize your website for mobile by using responsive design and ensuring all content, including images and buttons, is mobile-friendly. Test the mobile shopping experience regularly to ensure that it’s seamless.

Complex Checkout Process

A complicated or lengthy checkout process can result in cart abandonment. Simplify the checkout process by reducing the number of steps needed to complete a purchase. Enable guest checkout options, offer multiple payment methods, and allow users to save their preferences for future visits.

Unclear Return and Shipping Policies

If return or shipping policies aren’t clear or seem overly complicated, it can deter customers from completing their purchase. Display your shipping, return, and exchange policies clearly on product pages and at checkout. Offer free returns or clear guidance on how to initiate a return if necessary, which can reassure customers and enhance trust.

Inconsistent Stock Levels Across Locations

Customers may find that products are listed as available online but out of stock at the physical store they visit. Integrate inventory management systems across both digital and physical channels to ensure real-time stock updates. This can help avoid customers visiting stores for items that aren't available and enhance the consistency of the customer experience.

Limited Customer Support Access

Customers may feel frustrated if they can't quickly get answers to questions or resolve issues during their journey. Provide multiple customer support channels, such as live chat, phone support, and email, and ensure they are easily accessible throughout the customer journey. Set clear response time expectations and train your team to offer timely, helpful solutions.

Unclear or Misleading Promotions

If a promotion or discount isn’t clear or doesn’t work as expected, it can lead to frustration and abandoned purchases. Clearly communicate promotions, discounts, and terms before checkout and ensure that codes or deals are easy to apply. Avoid any hidden fees or restrictions that may cause confusion at the point of purchase.

Optimizing the Customer Journey: Step by Step

After mapping out your customer journey, you likely have a clearer idea of which points need improvement. The next step involves implementing targeted measures to remedy those issues.

Let’s look at some of the most vital factors in each phase of a hybrid customer journey.

Discovery: How to Catch Your Customers’ Eye

If your customers can’t find you or your products online, their journey will end before it begins. With this in mind, retailers are increasingly turning to local search engine optimization (local SEO) to drive nearby customers to their stores.

The main goal of local SEO? Establishing your stores as local favorites, securing high visibility by ranking in the Google Local 3-Pack, which includes two main elements.

First, creating content specifically tailored to nearby customers with an underlying or existing interest in your products or services. Second, curating content that convinces customers to take the plunge and visit your store.

But even though local SEO may involve data-driven decisions, it isn’t an exact science. Digital marketing success often relies on deploying different techniques for different circumstances.

Based on our experience, we put together the most vital local SEO ranking factors:

• Accurate Listings:Complete your Google Business Profile, making sure to update your listings across every possible directory with consistent information.

• On-page SEO: Identify powerful local keywords to optimize your website’s metadata and on-page tags; and also take care to ensure fast loading times.

• Online Reviews: Engage with customer reviews across numerous review platforms to forge a positive online reputation and boost your visibility.

For retail businesses with multiple brick-and-mortar locations, local SEO comes with additional complexity—because performing all the tasks mentioned above for numerous stores soon adds up and, if performed manually, always carries the risk of human error. By contrast, an integrated location marketing platform like Uberall can take your local SEO to the next level.

Evaluation: Edging Out the Competition

After catching a customer’s eye, you need to hold their attention and convince them to choose you. Persuading them to move from the online world to an offline store can prove tricky, though, even if a user already has an underlying interest in your products.

The task for digital marketers is to remove barriers from potential customers’ paths; even minor inconveniences could dissuade them from visiting your store. In practice, this means:

• User Experience: Ensure your website is optimized so that users can easily find the information they need. An excellent online customer experience deploys intuitive web design, accurate product information, and practical store locator tools.

• Online Reviews: Important for visibility in the discovery stage, reviews remain a powerful asset in the evaluation phase. Trusted input from previous customers can play a decisive role in winning over potential customers.

A Local Consumer Review Survey 2024 from BrightLocal found that 77% of consumers check two or more review sites before deciding to use a local business. For retail brands with numerous locations, these touchpoints represent a lot of ground to cover.

Implementing specialist location marketing software can streamline processes, leveraging the benefits of automation and AI-powered tools to keep those assets manageable. The Uberall platform, for example, facilitates centralized review management across numerous review sites along with expert support to build an effective locator for your website.

Purchase & Post-Purchase: Sealing the Deal

At the in-store phase, retailers can do what they do best: sell. You should celebrate the success of your customer journey, but don’t miss out on the chance to maximize the value of a sale. Those interactions can also provide another valuable chance to deepen relationships with new customers, leading to repeat business, or even positive referrals.

Strike while the iron is hot: a well-timed special offer could tempt your new customer back in store. A positive review of their recent interaction with your brand could also boost your online visibility and attract other customers; so don’t be afraid to ask happy customers for reviews.

Analyzing Improvements to Your Customer Journey

Retailers today need a structured, systematic approach when curating your customer journey. Yet, without a solid foundation of data-based insights, optimizing a hybrid customer journey will always be an uphill struggle.

Lay those foundations by defining meaningful KPIs to gauge the success of individual measures, ideally with trustworthy automated software. Specialist digital tools like Uberall also make better sense of vast amounts of data by processing inputs more accurately for your particular needs. This way, you can pinpoint which aspects of your customer journey are most effective, which measures bring success, and where your marketing budget produces the greatest impact.

Measuring Impact with Hard-hitting Figures

Quantifying the impact of your location marketing activities might seem like a daunting task. But don’t worry: you’re not alone! Our research suggests widespread disconnects between location marketing and bottom-line revenue across the industry.

In response, we’ve developed Location Performance Optimization–an innovative approach that unifies visibility, engagement, reputation, and conversions into one cohesive plan to drive revenue impact at every location. Reach out to us if you want to hear more about it!