1. Why is the customer journey important for more sales on bol.com?
The path the customer takes until your product lands on their doormat is crucial for your success as a seller, because a smooth customer journey ensures that customers are more likely to click the 'buy now' button.
Let's say you're looking for a toilet brush: you type the search query into Google and get a good option with a decent price. You click on it, but then you see that there's no information about the brush holder. The holder is visible in the Google photo, but it's not shown on the bol.com listing. That's vague. Also, the price on Google was only available for the green variant, while you want the red one. You give up.
When you're looking for a specific product and you don't have any reason to doubt during the customer journey (from the moment you first encounter the product), the chances are high that you'll click 'buy' right away. Maybe you had a question, but by reading the product description, you find the answer. Ideal! Time to buy.
A smooth customer journey = higher conversion
You can compare the customer journey to a sales funnel. How many people enter the funnel is one thing, but how many people actually complete the process? A smooth customer journey ensures that you lose fewer customers in the funnel. In other words, more sales on bol.com!
2. Not having control over the customer journey is a major reason for low sales on bol.com
Many online entrepreneurs build their business based on assumptions and suspicions about their customers' wishes. Not surprising, since what else can you base it on? But when it comes to the customer journey, you want to look at the situation from the customer's perspective. For example, have a few test subjects go through the entire customer journey and ask them where they might drop off.
Only when you know what's important to the customer can you respond to it during the customer journey. That's why assumptions aren't helpful in this area. Do you not have a written customer journey at the moment? Then you currently have no control over the customer journey. No worries, because this means there's room for improvement and thus a great chance for more sales on bol.com!
3. This is a customer journey and how you get control over it
When writing down the customer journey, consider all contact points (also called touchpoints) where the customer comes into contact.
Stage 1 can be the 'search phase', stage 2 can be everything that happens on the product page, stage 3 is the checkout process, stage 4 is the phase where the customer receives the product at home, and finally stage 5 is for after-sales: potential questions and customer service contact.
What contact moments (touchpoints) are there per phase?
As a seller on bol.com, you deal with (and have influence on) different contact points than when you run your own webshop. For example, you have relatively little influence on the checkout process, as it goes through bol.com and is the same for every seller.
On the other hand, you have a lot of influence on other phases. For example, at stage 1, the customer's search or orientation phase. Here, you can ask yourself at which points the customer journey for your product can start. Is the product findable on Google? On which pages of bol.com can your customer come into contact with the product? Is your product findable on social media? These are all possible starting points for the customer journey.
Examples of touchpoints
Don't be intimidated: chances are you'll have to deal with fewer contact points as a bol.com seller. Still, at stage 1, you can consider the search results on bol.com as touchpoints, such as:
- Product title
- Product price
- First image
- Review score
Each of these points evokes a certain feeling in the customer. That makes each of these points an individual touchpoint. The question is, can any of these touchpoints lead to doubts or concerns for the customer? Think of 'too expensive' or 'bad reviews'. It's also possible that the title gives a different impression than the product price.
From stage 1 to stage 2
After the initial contact via Google, bol.com search results, or social media, you now have the product page of your product: stage 2. Here, multiple touchpoints are present. At the very least, these include:
- Product title
- Price
- Images
- Product description
- Reviews
Go through the customer journey through the eyes of a customer, or have others go through it for you, as mentioned earlier. Are there any unclear points when viewing the product page? Are there touchpoints that contradict each other?
The less the customer has to think, the greater the chance they'll click through and place an order. So, go through all phases of the customer journey and ensure minimal obstacles and optimal satisfaction.
