The customer buying journey is a crucial concept for any Etsy seller to understand. It's the mental and emotional process that shoppers go through before making a purchase. By understanding this journey, you can strategically position your products and optimise your Etsy listings to guide potential customers towards buying from you.
The Two Main Steps
The customer buying journey can be broken down into two main steps:
- Becoming convinced that they need and/or want the product
- Eliminating or reducing barriers of purchase
We will explore these steps in details in the next chapters.
The Logical Flow of the Customer Buying Journey
To illustrate the concept a bit clearer, you can think of the buying journey as a series of gates that customers need to pass through, each requiring the right 'key' to open.
You need to present them with the right key at the right gate. Giving them the key to the last gate wouldn’t help them progress through the first gate. For example:
- Showing a product guarantee before explaining what the product is won't help customers progress in the journey
- Shipping information is irrelevant if customers don't think the product is right for their situation
- A buy-one-get-one-free deal isn't effective if customers don't see the product's benefit to them
In other words, as an Etsy seller, you want to first convince your customer that they need and want your products, and then remove or lessen those barriers so you can guide them towards the checkout.
Let's start with understanding what clicks with your customers.