The sales funnel is one of the key concepts of marketing theory that should be familiar to every aspiring sales entrepreneur. The term comes from English and means the entire path of the consumer from showing interest in the offer to closing the deal. That is, the sales funnel allows you to determine all stages of the user’s logic when making purchases and influence the behavior of a potential client in such a way as to gently push him towards your common goal.
The funnel consists of several stages. For example:
1. the visitor enters the site;
2. selects a category in the catalog;
3. looks through the goods;
4. adds the item to the cart;
5. places an order.
Some buyers are eliminated at each stage, there are fewer users – the process visually resembles a funnel. The more visitors reach its neck, the higher the conversion of the funnel of the online store.
How to make a sales funnel? The sales funnel is not the real path of the user, but the sequence of steps assumed by the business owner. The user journey is the actual behavior on the site and may differ from the simulated funnel https://creabl.com/service/create-funnels and the customer journey map.
Types of sales funnels of an online store
If we consider the topic of funnels even deeper, you need to understand that there is more than one sales funnel in an online store. We highlight three:
1. site funnel;
2. order processing funnel;
3. funnel of repeat purchases.
Each funnel has its own peculiarities. Consider why work with sales funnels and how to build a funnel in an online store.
Why build and analyze sales funnels
Building a sales funnel is necessary to bring the visitor to the target action. The conversion can vary greatly depending on the business area, the value of the product, and the client segment. According to research, the average conversion of online stores in 2020 is 2.63%. To get closer to the benchmark, you need to maximize the transitions from each stage of the funnel to the next. Or, in other words, to achieve a minimum amount of outflow of customers at each stage of the funnel. For all funnels, you need to count the conversion, and then try to increase it.
Understanding the stages of the sales funnel and analyzing the main KPIs will help you:
• better understand the target audience – strengthen the advertising campaign, attract high-quality traffic;
• identify problems and buying barriers at every step, points of exit from the site;
• work out weak points in the interface and reduce the outflow of customers;
• find growth points and increase stage conversions;
• evaluate and improve business performance.
