How user journeys affect conversion

User journeys are the paths that people take to reach their goal. A goal might be to purchase home insurance, a camera or a holiday. A consumer will go through a number of steps (known as ‘Tasks’) to achieve their end goal, this may include brand and/or product research, customer reviews and price comparisons. It is likely that these tasks don’t all take place in one session or on a single device.

Here is a visualization of a simplified user journey where a consumer wants to buy a new camera, on their mobile phone whilst on the train.

By mapping out the different user journeys in the different context (or ‘Scenarios) in which they take place, means that you can identify opportunities to optimize the experience and make it easier for the consumer to reach their goal when they are ready.

In reality, the journey will likely be more complex, crossing multiple channels and devices.

All too often consumers are faced with obstacles and barriers to completing their online journey resulting in a lost sale for your business. Whether it is too many steps in a process, a forgotten password, confusion on what to do next or distractions from too many messages, refining the online journey to optimize the user experience can directly reap conversion rewards for eCommerce websites.

There are a number of techniques that can be applied to help optimize an online journey, but it’s important to realize that what works for some websites, won’t work for others, and that is purely because of the consumers. Simply applying ‘best practice’ UX changes won’t guarantee an increase in conversion and certainly won’t unlock the potential in your own online experience.