The customer journey map changes with the development of technology. For many of the clients their first touchpoints is the brand’s webpage, blogs, or affiliate websites. How to encourage customers who are already set on making a purchase to select your product? How to direct them to licensed shops and trusted sellers? The Where To Buy tool might be your first building block.
What the customer journey looks like?
Begin with drafting the customer journey map. Such maps vary an occasion, but they do share some integrals elements, regardless of the branch of industry. Let’s look at the report: The world is no longer divided into offline and online. How mobile tools are affecting the Poles’ shopping habits in 2019. We can see that the path to purchase is becoming more and more sophisticated. The customer grows increasingly familiar with the brand at different touchpoints, and each of them is extremely important for how the selling process goes.
Additionally, the report accounts that over 48% of buyers are looking for relevant information on websites, whereas 20 % of shoppers use different search options, including websites. As a result, our drafting process should be informed by the conslusion: the customer journey does not begin in an online shop, but usually on the brand’s official website.
The customer journey usually starts with the brand’s page
Visit as it is, not all companies make use of this information and fail to include where-to-buy options on their website. As a result, the client is left to their own devices, with nothing but the product catalogue and product description on hand. Why not close the loop and use a where-to-buy channel to connect customers to online or offline seller? With that option active, our chance for increasing conversion actually becomes less random and capitalisation on visit surges.
The Smart Insights website shows that only 3.3% of the visiting customers decide to make a purchase. As the report further confirms, thanks to where-to-buy tool implemented properly, those numbers can be boosted far beyond what the “lean” website can help to net.
Does our website hit its sales target?
A website that includes an online shop has a much higher conversion than the one which doesn’t have that option. The Growcode website shows that depending on the branch the conversion can be between 0.084 % for baby products up to 3.83% for arts and crafts.
This is not a staggering result, but this indicator can increase also on non-ecommerce websites. Fitted register form, a chat, information line help to get the information where they can buy the product. In fact, we engage the service, which basically generate the cost.
In addition, we can never be certain whether the client will select the shops we showcase for them. That’s why implementing a Where To Buy seems to be more organic solution, which gives the client an access to good quality products, and renders for you the functionalities of website traffic and sales analysis. With those tools price monitoring is effortless, and fine-tuning your price policy becomes trouble-free. You also avoid the situation where price changes can negatively influence the brand image.
Another positive aspect is that the recommended shops will only compete with each other by offering additional services instead of lowering prices on goods. This will in effect positively influence the brand image, especially among the premium-segment brands.
How is Where To Buy useful only on brand websites?
Where-to-buy plugins are popular in affiliate programs partnered by bloggers. Under the post describing a specific product, one can find links to shops where the product can be purchased. For some influnecers this can be a very prosperous business. However, this model might not be as predictable as advertisers might expect, as it carries many unknowns. For example, you limit the striking range of your your campaign to the following of one specific blogger, relying entirely on their reputation. Also, you might need extra tools to monitor how effective the brand exposure and social sharing is through that channel. Another risky aspect of an influencer-driven campaign is that laying the groundwork for the cooperation might basically be time-consuming. As a result, for most of the time you might find yourself troubleshooting rather than making a profit.
That’s why the where to buy solution is one of the most important sales elements on the brand website. The marketing specialist Niel Patel emphasizes that clients love brands and adore starting their sales path from brand websites. It is because of the website. In addition, clients expect to find full information like specification’s product, instruction, basically the necessary knowledge on mentioned websites.
Let’s move on. Using this kind of implementation gives us an advantage over our competitors. Why? It’s simple. It’s really easy to purchase a product in online or offline shops . One click on the where to buy button directs them from a product webpage to their chosen shop. There are no advertisements or any others popups. Also, there is no chance to see competitors’ products. It’s just possible to see trusted shops.
Which industries will benefit from using where to buy?
Actually, there are no restrictions. In first place, home appliances and electronics industries brands and distributors of computers, consoles and all kinds of electronic equipment should really think about the implementation of the where to buy solution. It is also a great tool for fashion, companies producing premium products, expensive or hard to reach goods. Why? First of all, clients are afraid of purchasing fake products or with low quality. They want to buy products from trusted distributors with no worries about the warranty. If a product comes from outside Europe, it doesn’t have to be covered by the European guarantee, for example, such is the case with Nikon cameras.
What are the customers’ expectations?
Every company using the where to buy solution has profits. This allows to build a product strategy: “a set of activities whose purpose is to adapt a particular product to the expectations, current and future needs of its users”. These kinds of solutions give customers a sense of security. We also build loyalty and guarantee high quality. All these elements, including before and after sales support, have a significant impact on purchasing decisions.
Let’s focus on the main advantages of our where to buy tool
There are a lot of advantages this solution can offer. Some of them
will vary depending on the industry, but the most important ones that must be mentioned are:
- directing consumers to preferred retail partners both online and offline
- seamless integration of the solution on the website, as well as on mobile devices or in social media
- it will be easier to monitor customer traffic and collect statistical data that will enable the creation of appropriate sales and price strategies. As a result, it will enable sellers to increase sales, and, consequently, negotiate purchase prices
- it will be easier to monitor retailers’ activities, for
example to check how products are displayed in different channels compared to competitors’ products - extensive analysis of e-commerce data, including the effectiveness of advertising, product availability and many others
- while shopping, customers are always connected to our site – if a customer decides not to buy a product, we know at what stage the sales path was abandoned. As a result, we have the ability to track conversions and buyers’ behavior
- he where to buy solution allows you to change the behavior of customers in offline stores. If a customer hesitates before making a purchase, he may need to be sure that he is dealing with an authorized seller in order to decide to buy a product online
- customers are able not only to see where a product is available, but they can also compare its price in different stores
- buyers can easily find offline shops that are the closest to their place of residence (eg by means of geolocation)
- when analyzing the collected data, it is easy to gain knowledge about a specific distribution channel, its trends, compare sales data based on categories, products, models, etc…
Direct customers down the sales funnel
These are more benefits than the ones mentioned above. We need to remember that there are many factors that can influence customers’ behavior and product sales, such as: product industry, the product itself, its price, additional services etc. However, Where To Buy helps to easily keep in touch with customers during their first visit to the company website and direct them down the sales funnel. No phone calls or e-mails encouraging to purchase are needed. Of course, we can make a remarketing campaign, not to lose undecided customers. There are numerous options, you just have to use them.
