The Journey – How Customers Get from Awareness To Purchase

Today’s consumers are more complex than ever.  The customer journey from awareness to purchase decision is one that may involve multiple screens, points of reference, and many days before reaching completion.  Google has done some research and put together some stats summarized here.

Customer Touch Points

 

 

Channels

The interesting thing about this journey is it differs across countries and markets.  Below is a chart of what channels help businesses in the US achieve the purchase decision:

Purchase Decision Biz US

 

Below you see the same chart for businesses in Canada:

Purchase Decision Biz Canada

 

Despite the cultural similarities, there are vast differences in purchasing behavior between these to countries.  The impact of email in Canada versus the US is very interesting and something to keep in mind with your target consumers.

 

Steps to Purchase

The length of customer interaction is also interesting, especially the fact that in the US 62% of total revenue comes from purchases made on the first day:

Days to Purchase - US

But in Canada, while 64% of purchase decisions are made on the first day, there is a much larger fluctuation in average order value.

Days to Purchase - Canada

 

Benchmarks

Now every customer is unique, and results vary by industry as well as country.  If you target consumer packaged goods (CPG) as an industry, the US benchmarks are below:

Consumer Packaged Goods - Steps to Purchase

 

Or if you target the Travel industry, the assisting and influencing factors are very different:

Travel US Journey

 

So in summary, all factors play a role, just bear in mind where your prospect is in the funnel, and use their engagement to help move them to the purchase decision.

 

Happy Marketing!

Dave Burnett

 

P.S. A great place to get listed is the W3 Directory: http://w3-directory.com/ – check it out when you have a moment.