Take website visitors, for example. Research shows that more than 70% of online shoppers who put something in their online cart end up abandoning the cart before buying. But by giving your customers every reason to buy and ensuring that their purchase journey is as smooth and easy as possible, your outdoor brand can maximize its conversions, ramp up revenues and boost the bottom line.
To set your brand up for more success, consider these seven keys to a simple and impediment-free customer purchase journey:
1. Understand your customers
To optimize your customers’ purchase journeys, it’s important to know as much about them as possible. Who are they? How do they shop? Where do they shop? Where do they leave your shopping experience? Take a deep dive into the customer data your brand has collected, as it can tell the story and provide answers to all of these questions — and more. And once you’ve leveraged it to gain powerful insights about your consumer, apply this knowledge to your decision-making about every step your consumers take along the path to purchase.
2. Create a prospective customer purchase journey
Next, take the time to map out all the decisions, actions and interactions your prospective customers navigate. Map that out from the moment they identify a problem they need your brand’s offerings to solve to the moment they make their purchase decision and buy your product or service. By doing so, you can better understand how each step along the journey leads to the next … and eliminate any gaps, obstacles or other pain points that might prevent a prospective customer from converting.
3. Create an existing customer purchase journey
Just as you mapped out a purchase journey above for prospective customers, do the same for existing customers. Returning customers are likely to take a different path to purchase, especially during the initial stages of the marketing funnel. Consider the existing customer’s possible starting point: Will he or she go directly to your website to consider the buying options? Will he or she click through on a call to action in a marketing email you’ve sent? Will he or she be considering a new product or consumable product? Again, at every step along the way in the journey, work to identify and eliminate any pain points that may act as a hurdle to conversion.
4. Ask for customer feedback on their journey
Your brand’s customers navigate their own unique paths to purchase with every product or service they buy, and their insights can be a huge help in helping you smooth the journey for them and other prospective buyers. Once your customer has completed his or her purchase journey, take the opportunity to get his or her feedback on the process. A good option to consider here is to include a request for feedback in the email or hard-copy receipt you provide to the customer after his or her purchase is complete, then point the recipient to an online questionnaire or form where he or she can provide responses to any questions you ask them.
5. Make it easy to do business with your brand
Above all, at every step along the path to purchase, make sure it’s as painless as possible for consumers to buy from you. If your business offers e-commerce options, carefully examine all the potential customer touchpoints on your website, in your campaign emails and on your social platforms to ensure that all hurdles on the path to conversion are cleared. If your brand sells its products and services at retail locations, make sure it’s easy for customers to find your retailers quickly and with as little hassle as possible.
6. Optimize your website design
On your brand’s website, make sure that it’s easy for your target customers to find and research your products and services. To facilitate this, each page on your site should offer search functionality — especially if your brand has a lot of product and/or service offerings, and your site’s navigation scheme should enable visitors to find what they’re looking for in as few clicks as possible. To maximize conversions, buying should be simple, too. Consider spotlighting buyers’ leading purchase options with a Best Sellers section or page. Make reviews and testimonials easy to find and read for each of your offerings. Offer a Buy Now option (as well as a Buy Now and Pay Later option) on every product profile and product page. Strive to improve your site’s shopping cart experience, eliminating all pain points that may slow or otherwise hinder the purchase process. Offer a range of secure payment options during checkout, including major credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and others. And ensure that the post-purchase experience is easy, too, by sending your customers regular updates about processing milestones, including detailed shipment and tracking information.
7. Reward customers and invite them to share
Of course, once a customer’s purchase is complete, you’ll want to take steps to help ensure he or she will be back. If you don’t have one in place already, consider implementing a loyalty program that encourages repeat business — and can help you turn your repeat customers into true brand advocates who actively spread the good word about your outdoor brand. And to get the ball rolling further in that area, ask your customers to (and even find a way to incentivize them to) share their experience with your brand and its offering on social media, on review sites, etc.
Need expert optimizing your customers’ purchase journeys? At TBA Outdoors, our team of marketing pros has paved the way for more (and easier) prospect purchases for a long list of outdoor brands — and we’re here to help your brand do the same. Further, as a fully integrated marketing firm, we’ve got your marketing needs covered whether you’re seeking help with your purchase journey or need expert assistance in areas ranging from analytics and creative to social media, e-commerce, public relations and more — all in one place.
To explore how we can help your outdoor brand smooth its purchase journey and amplify the effectiveness of all of its marketing campaigns, reach out to our team of marketing professionals today.
