Imagine you had a salesperson who consistently could not sell. Would you change one sentence in their sales pitch and assume you had fixed the problem? Of course not! You would assess their entire approach to making a sale....
1. How they understand the consumer needs and guide them through the right journey.
2. How they explain the product and the words they use to keep the customer engaged.
3. The promises they make and how they close the sale.
Underperforming or new salespeople undergo full sales training.
BUT, when an online retail channel underperforms, there is this focus on trying to fix one thing...
1. Change the homepage banners.
2. Add another technical feature.
3. Change the colour of the Add to Cart button.
4. Introduce a sale.
After 25 years of looking at underperforming digital channels, it is rare that only one thing causes the problem.
The problems today are less obvious than the colour of a button. Today it's several small problems compounding across the entire customer journey
People stop and leave when...
1. There is too much effort to make a decision.
2. They have no confidence in a product or service.
3. They are confused as to what steps they need to take next.
4. They don't feel like they are in control of their own buying journey.
This is why you can't properly diagnose an underperforming online retail channel one page or interaction at a time.
Customers experience the whole journey, so the diagnostic process needs to approach it in the same way.
The objective isn't to find something to change. It's to understand where friction, uncertainty and lost confidence are accumulating across the journey — and fix the things that are actually holding performance back.
This article was as tagged as Digital Strategy , eCommerce Consulting , eCommerce Conversion Rate Optimisation