Marketing Tips
Jun 22, 2023
Supercharge Your Sales: Unleash the Power of a Winning E-commerce Sales Funnel!
Ankur Goyal
5 mins to read
Introduction
What is a Conversion Funnel and why is it Important?
Imagine you are a food blogger who sells cookbooks. How do you attract and persuade people to buy your books online? How do you know what steps they take before they make a purchase? How do you measure and improve your sales performance?
These are some of the questions that a conversion funnel can help you answer. A conversion funnel is a strategy used in marketing to understand the various stages of a potential customer's experience as they interact with your brand or product before deciding to make a purchase.
A conversion funnel is often visualized as a wide funnel at the top and narrow at the bottom, representing the gradual decrease of the number of people who move from one stage to another.
The stages of a conversion funnel can vary depending on your business model and goals. For brands specifically in e-commerce, the funnel usually include:
1. Discovery
This is when people first discover your brand or product through various channels, such as social media, search engines, ads, etc. Your goal at this stage is to capture their attention and interest with engaging and relevant content.
For example, the food blogger posts mouth-watering photos of his recipes on Instagram, writes helpful articles on his blog, or runs ads on Facebook targeting people who love cooking. This will come under the discovery part of the funnel.
2. Product Page
This is when people land on your website or app and view your product page, where they can learn more about your product’s features and benefits, and compare it with other options.
Your goal at this stage is to educate them and build trust with valuable and useful information. For example, the food blogger showcases his cookbooks on his website, highlighting their unique selling points, offering free samples or previews, or sharing testimonials from satisfied customers.
3. Research Across Channels
This is when people leave your website or app and look for more information about your product or similar products on other online platforms, such as review sites, forums, blogs, social media, etc.
Your goal at this stage is to stay in touch with them and influence their decision with remarketing campaigns, email newsletters, social media posts, etc.
For example, the food blogger sends them an email with a limited-time offer, shows them social proof of how many people have bought his books on Facebook or Instagram, or creates a sense of urgency with a countdown timer on his website.
4. Add to cart
This is when people return to your website or app and add your product to their shopping cart, indicating their intention to buy.
Your goal at this stage is to persuade them and motivate them with incentives, such as discounts, free shipping, cross-sells or upsells, etc.
For example, the food blogger offers them a 10% discount if they buy two or more books, gives them free shipping if they spend over $50, or suggests them other related products that they might like.
5. Checkout and Payment
This is when people complete the purchase process by filling out their personal and payment details and confirming their order.
Your goal at this stage is to make the process as easy and smooth as possible and to confirm their decision with a thank you message or a confirmation email. For example, the food blogger provides multiple payment options, simplifies the checkout process, sends them a receipt and a tracking number, or asks them for feedback.
A conversion funnel is important because it helps you understand how your customers behave online, what are their pain points and motivations, and what are the factors that influence their decision to buy or not.
By analyzing your conversion funnel, you can identify the areas where you are losing customers and the opportunities where you can improve your user experience and marketing efforts. It also helps you track and measure your sales performance by using metrics such as traffic volume, bounce rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, revenue, etc.
You can use these metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and optimize them for better results.
A conversion funnel is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but a flexible framework that you can customize according to your business needs and goals. You can create different conversion funnels for different products, segments, channels, or scenarios.
You can also test and experiment with different elements of your conversion funnel, such as headlines, images, copy, offers, etc., to see what works best for your audience. By creating and optimizing your conversion funnel, you can create a better customer journey that leads to more conversions and sales for your business.
How to Analyse and Optimise Your Conversion Funnel?
Analysing your conversion funnel is the process of examining how your visitors move through the different stages of your funnel, from awareness to action, and identifying where they drop off or convert. By analysing your conversion funnel, you can discover the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing strategy, and find ways to improve your conversions and sales.
There are many tools and methods you can use to analyse your conversion funnel, but here are some of the most effective ones:
Google Analytics:
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that allows you to track and measure various aspects of your website or app performance, including your conversion funnel. You can use Google Analytics to set up goals, define your funnel steps, and visualize how your visitors flow through your funnel.
You can also use Google Analytics to segment your visitors by different criteria, such as source, device, location, etc., and compare how they behave in your funnel. Google Analytics can help you identify where you are losing visitors, what pages or elements are causing friction, and what actions are leading to conversions.
Heatmaps:
Heatmaps are visual representations of how your visitors interact with your website or app, such as where they click, scroll, hover, etc.
You can use heatmaps to analyse how your visitors engage with each stage of your funnel, and what elements catch their attention or distract them. Heatmaps can help you optimize your layout, design, copy, images, buttons, etc., to make your funnel more user-friendly and persuasive.
Surveys:
Surveys are a great way to collect feedback from your visitors and customers directly. You can use surveys to ask them questions about their experience in your funnel, such as what motivated them to visit your website or app, what problems or challenges they faced, what influenced their decision to buy or not, etc.
Surveys can help you understand the needs, preferences, expectations, and objections of your target audience, and tailor your funnel accordingly.
A/B Testing:
A/B testing is a method of comparing two or more versions of a webpage or app element to see which one performs better in terms of conversions. You can use A/B testing to experiment with different variations of your funnel stages, such as headlines, images, copy, offers, etc., and measure their impact on your conversion rate.
A/B testing can help you find the optimal combination of elements that will maximize your conversions and sales.Customer Journey Mapping: Customer journey mapping is a technique of creating a visual representation of the steps that your customers take from their first interaction with your brand until they achieve their desired outcome.
You can use customer journey mapping to analyse how your customers perceive and experience each stage of your funnel, what emotions they feel, what touchpoints they encounter, what pain points they face, etc. Customer journey mapping can help you empathize with your customers and identify gaps and opportunities in your funnel.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):
CRO is the process of improving the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action on your website or app. You can use CRO to analyse and optimize every aspect of your conversion funnel, such as traffic sources, landing pages, product pages, shopping cart pages, checkout pages, etc. CRO can help you increase the number and quality of leads and customers that you generate from your funnel.
Funnel Optimization Test:
Funnel optimization test is a method of testing how well your visitors can complete a specific task on your website or app without any guidance or assistance. You can use funnel optimization test to analyse how easy or difficult it is for your visitors to navigate through your funnel and achieve their goal. Funnel optimization test can help you identify usability issues and bottlenecks in your funnel.
Ecommerce Analytics:
Ecommerce analytics is a tool that allows you to track and measure the performance of your ecommerce website or app in terms of conversions and sales. You can use ecommerce analytics to analyse how your visitors interact with your products and categories, how they add items to their cart and proceed to checkout, how they complete their orders and make payments, etc.
Ecommerce analytics can help you understand the behavior and preferences of your customers and optimize your product assortment and pricing.Analysing your conversion funnel is not a one-time task, but an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and improvement.
By using these tools and methods regularly, you can analyse your conversion funnel effectively and optimize it for better results.
How to Prevent Customer Loss at Each Stage of Your Conversion Funnel?
One of the biggest challenges of optimizing your conversion funnel is to prevent customer loss at each stage. Customer loss means losing potential customers who either abandon your website or app, or choose a competitor over you. Customer loss can have a negative impact on your conversions and sales, and reduce your return on investment (ROI).
To prevent customer loss, you need to identify the reasons why customers leave your funnel, and address them with effective solutions. Here are some of the common reasons and solutions for customer loss at each stage of your conversion funnel:
1. Product Page:
Customer loss due to ghost clicks and incomplete information. Ghost clicks are clicks that do not lead to any action or result, such as clicking on an image that does not enlarge or clicking on a button that does not work. Incomplete information is when your product page does not provide enough details or features about your product, such as dimensions, specifications, reviews, etc.
To prevent customer loss due to ghost clicks and incomplete information, you need to ensure that your product page is functional, responsive, and informative. You can use tools like heatmaps or user testing to identify and fix any ghost clicks or broken links on your product page.
You can also use tools like Ubersuggest or AnswerThePublic to find out what questions or keywords your customers are searching for, and provide them with relevant and comprehensive information on your product page.
2. Research Across Channels:
Customer loss due to other channels, competition, fake products, and no brand recall. Other channels are online platforms where your customers can find more information about your product or similar products, such as review sites, forums, blogs, social media, etc. Competition is when your customers compare your product with other products offered by your competitors, and choose them over you.
Fake products are products that imitate or counterfeit your product, and deceive your customers into buying them. No brand recall is when your customers forget about your brand or product after leaving your website or app.
To prevent customer loss due to other channels, competition, fake products, and no brand recall, you need to stay in touch with your customers and influence their decision with remarketing campaigns, email newsletters, social media posts, etc.
You can use tools like Google Ads or Facebook Ads to create and run remarketing campaigns that target your customers based on their behavior and interests. You can also use tools like Mailchimp or HubSpot to create and send email newsletters that provide valuable content and offers to your customers. You can also use tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to create and post engaging content on social media that showcases your brand personality and value proposition.
3. Add to Cart:
Customer loss due to lack of personalized discounts or offers. Lack of personalized discounts or offers is when you do not provide any incentives or rewards to your customers based on their preferences or behavior, such as discounts, free shipping, cross-sells or upsells, etc.
To prevent customer loss due to lack of personalized discounts or offers, you need to analyse and segment your customers based on their characteristics and actions, such as demographics, location, purchase history, browsing history, etc.
You can use tools like Google Analytics or Segment to collect and analyse customer data and create customer segments. You can then use tools like OptinMonster or Unbounce to create and display personalized discounts or offers to your customers based on their segments.
4. Checkout and Payment:
Customer loss due to long, inefficient checkout process and hidden fees. Long, inefficient checkout process is when your checkout process has too many steps or fields that require too much time or effort from your customers. Hidden fees are fees that are not disclosed upfront to your customers, such as shipping fees, taxes, service fees, etc.
To prevent customer loss due to long, inefficient checkout process and hidden fees, you need to simplify and streamline your checkout process and be transparent about your fees. You can use tools like Shopify or WooCommerce to create and optimize your checkout process with features like one-click checkout, guest checkout, autofill fields, progress indicators, etc.
You can also use tools like Trustpilot or TrustBadge to display trust signals and social proof on your checkout page that reassure your customers about the security and credibility of your website or app. You can also use tools like ShippingEasy or TaxJar to calculate and display accurate shipping costs and taxes for your customers based on their location.
Conclusion
Creating and optimizing your conversion funnel is one of the most important tasks for any online business. It can help you attract, engage, and convert more customers, and grow your sales and revenue.To create and optimize your conversion funnel, you need to follow these steps:
Set up goals and define your funnel steps using Google Analytics
Analyse your conversion funnel using various tools and methods, such as Google Analytics, heatmaps, surveys, A/B testing, customer journey mapping, etc.
Optimize your conversion funnel using various tools and methods, such as Google Analytics, heatmaps, surveys, A/B testing, customer journey mapping, CRO, funnel optimization test, ecommerce analytics, etc.
Prevent customer loss at each stage of your conversion funnel by addressing the common reasons and solutions for customer loss, such as ghost clicks, incomplete information, other channels, competition, fake products, no brand recall, lack of personalized discounts or offers, long inefficient checkout process, hidden fees, etc.
Retain and delight your customers after they have completed a purchase on your website or app by providing excellent customer service, offering loyalty programs or rewards, sending personalized emails or messages, asking for feedback or reviews, etc.
By following these steps regularly, you can create and optimize your conversion funnel effectively and achieve better results for your online business.
Ankur Goyal
Ankur Goyal, a visionary entrepreneur, is the driving force behind Fibr, a groundbreaking AI co-pilot for websites. With a dual degree from Stanford University and IIT Delhi, Ankur brings a unique blend of technical prowess and business acumen to the table. This isn't his first rodeo; Ankur is a seasoned entrepreneur with a keen understanding of consumer behavior, web dynamics, and AI. Through Fibr, he aims to revolutionize the way websites engage with users, making digital interactions smarter and more intuitive.