How WHERE, WHEN, and HOW shape the shopper journey.
For most brands, it really doesn’t matter where shopping starts, it’s about where and how it ends.
Here at Locally, we have seasoned marketing veterans that have had the consumer shopping journey and conversion funnels top-of-mind for over 20 years. Many of our team members have worked in e-commerce and online marketplaces, retail, as well as in search, and social media advertising. Today, we’re focused on the rapidly emerging consumer behavior of online-to-offline 🔗 (O2O) journeys.
The idea of a funnel 🔗 is pretty intuitive: engage a potential audience, show them products they may be interested in, gauge their intent, and enable conversion. None of this is paradigm-shifting; Businesses in the early twentieth century sent their staff out to the street wearing sandwich boards to get passersby into the shop. If that tactic yielded foot traffic, the return on that investment could be calculated.
Today, people nearly always talk about the “conversion funnel” as it relates to digital marketing: unique users, bounce rate, conversion rate, ad spend, etc… But is that really the complete description of the consumer shopping journey? Reducing the shopper funnel to traditional digital behaviors ignores many of the details of how shoppers actually shop. That narrow view also significantly lowers longer-ranging metrics like Customer Lifetime Value 🔗 (CLV). To understand shoppers and increase metrics like CLV, we need to take a more holistic view.
Shoppers aren’t choosing to shop in one single channel or another, so why do we look at the funnel that way?
Shoppers may switch channels 🔗 mid-journey and ultimately buy products in a way that seems completely unrelated to the channel where they started. To understand why, it’s important to examine the what, where, when, and how(s) of shopping. Answering these questions is key to providing a solution that ensures shoppers end up buying your product, rather than those of a competitor.
Let’s go through the list:
WHAT
This one is so simple it can be misleading. The WHAT is generally the need the shopper is trying to solve. This can be hyper-specific, like an exact variant (size/color) of a specific product. But it can also be a bit more vague; shoppers may have a need but are unsure of what product will fit that need. The WHAT is more often a product concept than a rigid idea.
And in many cases, when the shopper is less sure of their requirements, the WHAT can be a more generalized idea about products. A larger selection and less specificity may better serve a larger number of unsure shoppers, whereas a narrower, more focused selection may serve a more decisive shopper better.
WHERE
This idea is also abstract for shoppers. The WHERE certainly can be a physical location for a merchant, but it could also be a digital destination. Shopping down the street is a WHERE, but so is shopping on a brand’s website.
The WHERE concept is part of what Locally set out to fix; people often start their shopping on websites but end up in a nearby store. This is what is generally known as online-to-offline, two different “WHERES” used by a shopper to solve a single shopping problem.
WHEN
The WHEN is a major priority for shoppers and it has become a highlight for most sellers; with the rise of same-day delivery, curbside pickup, and Amazon Prime, fast delivery is proving to be a huge boost for conversion rates.
Among the other three considerations, WHEN tends to be the least abstract. The window of time for delivery is pretty specific. WHEN tends to be more of a moderator for the other three considerations. Shoppers are swayed by immediacy.
HOW
This idea can be conflated with the idea of WHERE, but for shoppers, it’s really different.
Let’s look at this experience: “I need a specific tool for a job. I don’t really care about brand or model, but I also know that I don’t know that much about the various products that can do this job. There are two equally-nearby options: a local hardware store that is known for great service and a big-box hardware store that is known for a great selection.”
It doesn’t matter WHERE I go, because they are both equally close and will have what I want (a solution for WHAT), but one is more likely to have an expert on-site who can help me find the right tool.
In this scenario, HOW is also a concept that most people are familiar with: mass market vs specialty store. Shoppers constantly switch between specialty and mass market, full-service and self-service.
SOLUTIONS
Most e-commerce merchants are only able to count on a 1-2% conversion rate—because many merchants aren’t prepared to account for multichannel journeys. On the other hand, a brick-and-mortar retailer may have a 90% conversion rate on people who walk in the door, but get 90% less foot traffic than a website selling the same products.
What is happening? People simply don’t stick with the single stack of solutions that a venue offers if they can skip around and create their own solution.
The shopper truly is the one who is ultimately in control despite the best attempts to create online silos.
With these considerations in mind, let’s look at some hypothetical examples of how shoppers might solve a specific shopping dilemma.
My car battery seems to be dying.
My initial engagement includes a general need for a product concept [WHAT] but that specificity falls away as I move toward a purchase, more highly prioritizing how close a seller is [WHERE], how fast I can get the battery [WHEN], and what level of service the seller provides [HOW].
Engagement: I need a new battery [WHAT].
Interest: I need it ASAP [WHEN].
Intent: I find 5 nearby battery stores [WHERE].
Action: I buy from a store that offers the best service [HOW].
Invited on a fishing trip.
I need to replace my sunglasses for a fishing trip this weekend. I know what I want and I just need to get them as fast and easily as I possibly can.
I know I need sunglasses and I have a good idea of [WHAT] but getting them quickly [WHEN] is more important to me because I leave in two days.
I need sunglasses for a fishing trip [WHAT].
I need them quickly [WHEN]. (What is still key).
I consider nearby and online sellers [WHERE].
I buy from the merchant with the quickest delivery [WHEN].
I want to buy a new guitar.
I want to buy a new guitar and I don’t know nearly enough about my options, so I’m looking for some help. My timeline is the least important part of my decision.
I want a new guitar but don’t know [WHAT] to buy.
I research guitar brands and full-service stores [WHAT & HOW].
My research points me to nearby music stores [WHERE].
I make my choice based on their recommendation [WHAT].
I discover a new brand at my favorite store.
I need some new clothes for fall and I head to my favorite men’s clothing store to browse the latest arrivals.
I often shop at my favorite men’s clothing store [WHERE].
I discover a new brand that I really like [WHAT].
They don’t have my size, so I research other sellers [WHERE].
I buy DTC based on selection, return policy, and speed.
In conclusion
It’s clear that shoppers use substantially more criteria during the shopping journey than just WHAT.
The considerations that lead to a final action often meander through a variety of possible inputs, and many of those can lead to WHERE, WHEN, and HOW either securing or blocking the purchase.
When shoppers prioritize WHERE, WHEN, or HOW they are explicitly signaling the desire to shop across channels.
Brands that offer a convenient solution may be the brands that are saving the sale. Brands that don’t aren’t going to experience a higher conversion rate, they are just more likely to lose cross-channel sales to competitors.
Or, more pointedly, the lack of an online-to-offline referral solution may ultimately be the reason a shopper - who was acquired and referred by a brand - ends up purchasing a different product from a different channel.
Online-to-offline shopping is here to stay. Learn more about the number one platform for the number one way people shop.
