The Customer Purchase Journey

A customer has to overcome many obstacles before making a purchase from a business for the first time. These obstacles refer to the basic steps a customer has to undergo before going ahead with the purchase.

Product Fit – The first step is to completely understand the product being offered and how it can address a need. The customer needs to go through the different features and benefits of the product to ensure that the product is a good fit for the need addressed.

Tip for Businesses – Highlight the use cases of your product and all its features very prominently. This stage helps in creating customer demand for the product.

Value for Spend – This is where the customer analyses whether the spend is justified. Some customers may not want to spend above a particular amount for a particular need. Also customers should check whether the product is priced well by the business and that he/she is not overpaying for the product.

Tip for Businesses – Understand what value the product holds for a customer before pricing it. Both overpricing and underpricing a product harm a business.

Trust on the Business – This is the final step where if all is well in the above two steps, the customer looks for data/feedback which shows the business’s credibility and its capability to deliver what is promised.

Tip for Business – Businesses should use social proofing to build trust and credibility.

Once a customer goes through the above 3 steps, a purchase tends to be the end result.