Before we get into the intricacies of e-commerce and the “e-commerce marketing funnel”, let us understand the concept of a marketing funnel.
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A marketing funnel is a strategic visualization of the customer journey from lead to committed buyer. It shows the various steps that a prospective customer takes to move from one stage of the buying process to the next.
A “marketing funnel” reflects the consumer’s state of mind during the purchase cycle. It is derived from the four stages of a typical buyer journey called AIDA:
The marketing funnel could look like this:
Image source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/how-to-build-a-marketing-funnel/
No one can be sure of where a potential customer is in the buying process. However, the customer needs help to move to the stage. To avoid missing a potential lead or customer, a company has to make sure that it has a map, or a funnel, to channel these potential customers to its website or product.
A marketing funnel is thus an essential tool that allows the marketing team to design marketing plans to attract, engage and convert potential customers through relevant marketing material. It is also important because it is a measurable activity and can help prevent customer leakages, i.e., customers dropping out at different stages before buying.
Massive digitalization, growth of digital and social media channels, and the Covid-19 pandemic have led companies to move or develop an online marketplace that provides a customized, one-to-one shopping experience to customers.
The online shopping journey is different from that of an online purchase. Customers today are more informed, more connected and more empowered.
The growth of digital marketing and growing consumption of content on digital devices has led to modifications in the traditional AIDA model of a marketing funnel.
E-commerce relies entirely on defining and optimizing the customer purchase journey through suitable product offers, content and digital channels to drive leads to the website. Any initiative that reduces the friction along the customer journey and engages the customer seamlessly leads to a successful e-commerce marketing gain.
The most successful e-commerce marketing companies follow the following tips to drive their growth:
An e-commerce marketing funnel visualises the journey a customer takes going through the online buying cycle.
The e-commerce marketing funnel has three principal stages covering customer acquisition:
In e-commerce, the funnel goes beyond the customer acquisition journey described above and adds in two more stages for customer retention and repeat business:
Visually, the e-commerce marketing funnel can be represented as follows:
Image source: https://sproutsocial.com/glossary/marketing-funnel/
The following elements are a must-have for any e-commerce marketing funnel:
A marketing funnel is not a static “build it and forget it” mechanism. It is a real-time representation of how the marketplace perceives products and brands and reflects the changes and evolutions in the customer purchase cycle over time.
It is, therefore, essential to integrate the following metrics and tools into the e-commerce marketing funnel to ensure that it is delivering as per expectations:
There are several helpful e-commerce marketing channels, including:
According to experts, only 10-15% of all leads collected convert into actual customers. E-commerce marketing companies need to have an effective and dynamic marketing funnel that can help boost this conversion ratio.
An e-commerce site cannot function without a well-designed and flexible marketing funnel, primarily because the customer engagement is not face-to-face, and the risk of a potential customer dropping out is very big. An e-commerce website has a lot to gain by choosing or building the proper marketing funnel:
All potential e-commerce customers will go through the funnel stages described above. However, not all customers are the same or follow the same trajectory. Different customers have different needs; some will move quickly through the various stages, and some will take longer at one or more funnel stages.
The best way to ensure the e-commerce marketing funnel works properly is to understand the buyer’s journey and design content and marketing tools to optimize each funnel stage.
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