What is Path to Purchase and Omnichannel Research?
When talking about Path to Purchase we have to talk about Omnichannel. Our shopping journey is not as linear as it used to be. Historically a customer might have seen a television commercial, picked up the phone, and ordered a product before the ad was even over. Nowadays we are much savvier with our purchases. Comparing different brands and retailers for value, connecting with other shoppers for feedback, or even talking to the brand via social media - our shopping and consideration journey is more complex than ever.
The Omnichannel Buying Journey
Let’s take a mattress shopping journey as an example.
A potential customer wakes up after a terrible night’s sleep and finally decides to purchase a new mattress that will improve his sleep quality but also offer additional back support.
They will do a quick Google search to learn more about different brands and styles available to them, then slowly start narrowing their search based on their budget, features of the product, and proximity to the store or delivery options.
While browsing the website they opt into cookies, meaning shortly after they start seeing ads for various mattresses on their social media feeds.
They may then proceed to compare different options on their laptops undertaking additional research into the brand (as well as product reviews on 3rd party review sites).
Because a mattress is a high consideration purchase and is a significantly higher risk decision than a duvet cover, the shopper might visit a local store to test their chosen mattress. While historically this is where most purchase journeys would end, if the in-store experience is not enjoyable or lacks a convenient delivery option, many customers will go back online to complete their order.
The shopper might go back onto Google again and be influenced by all the 5-star reviews and quick delivery options deciding ultimately to go ahead and order from a leading online-first brand like Casper or Emma.
Then receive their order the following day and finally get rid of their old, uncomfortable mattress.
Transform your Path to Purchase Research with Mobile Ethnography
The journey described here is only one of the thousands of possible scenarios. With so many platforms and digital outlets accessible via our fingertips, the path to purchase journey has never been more complex.
Traditional qualitative research methodologies really fall behind when it comes to modern shopping. While a face to face interview can help to establish customer’s motivations, it relies solely on their recall often resulting in only partial data being shared as respondents might simply not remember how they came across a product or at what stage of their research they made the decision to purchase from a particular brand.
Analytics, while very insightful also only present a partial view of the overall data that influences a purchase decision. While facilitating insights as to where customers initially started their journey and how they navigated a website, analytics lack the understanding of the ‘why’ and don’t take any offline experiences into account.
This is where Mobile Ethnography [What is Mobile Ethnography?] is especially powerful.
With a native app installed on a shopper’s smartphone, the respondents can document every step of their shopping journey. They can upload images of ads they are seeing on social media, add videos of their in-store experience, and comment on their interactions with competitor brands online.
The Indeemo app also enables your respondents to record their mobile or laptop screen, allowing you to see their journey while listening to their in-the-moment narration. This feature is especially powerful as it allows you to research your customer’s online activity like never before.
Combined with an experience graph, you can also instantly see how your shopper is experiencing the various steps of their journey and draw immediate, actionable insights.
What are the Benefits of Using Indeemo in Path to Purchase Research?
No other methodology can help you walk in the shoes of your shopper like Mobile Ethnography.
No other methodology can help you map the omnichannel purchase journey at every single touchpoint from the trigger to the transaction and beyond.
Thanks to its agility and remote capabilities you can connect with shoppers anywhere at any time and observe their responses almost instantly with Indeemo’s researcher dashboard.
With a Mobile Diary Study you get to get into the context of your shopper’s experience regardless of what platform they are using - enabling you to collect richer, and much more complete insights than any other tool or methodology.
Summary
Regardless of what platforms your shopper interact with, or how they shop your brand online and offline, with the agility of Mobile Ethnography you can record their every step and understand their in-context and in-the-moment motivations and decisions. Like no other methodology, a Mobile Diary Study can help you research the path to purchase through the eyes of your shoppers, allowing for rich and actionable insight.
Mobile Ethnography is quick to activate and extremely cost-effective and it’s disruptively impactful.
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