Practical Principles for Purchase Journey Success

Money is Not the Only Currency You Will Spend

Perhaps the single most important decision is whether to partner with a full-service custom shopper research partner, a standardized tech platform research provider, or go it alone with a fully DIY platform. Depending on which you choose (and this is, unfortunately, sometimes the choice of someone else), your team will pay in not only money, but also time and energy (positive and/or negative energy).

It is critical to conduct a Readiness Assessment evaluating and comparing the required shopper expertise and available tools against the team’s resources. Anticipate that the three types of currencies will not remain in equilibrium, but rather each will fluctuate depending on the others.

For example, a recent engagement with a shelf-stable cookie and cracker manufacturer began with the goal of synthesizing clickstream data with findings from a DIY survey. Though they had the analytical tools to link the two disparate data inputs, no one on the team had the time or expertise to identify the common unit of analysis (i.e., the bridge variable they would use as a connection point). Upon deeper investigation, it was discovered that the gaps in conversion were primarily at the moment of purchase, rather than pre-purchase, where clickstream is most informative. In addition, one of the two categories was actually losing shoppers in-store. While we were able to help this organization, it necessitated additional research that was not in scope… or in their budget.

If there comes a point where you are feeling just a bit overwhelmed due to time, resource, or expertise restraints, ask for guidance. Some research providers will engage with brands at multiple levels, from full-service to consulting to training sessions.

Keep Your Focus on the Goal to Avoid Becoming Enchanted by Extraneous Variables

Journey map infographics and content are pored over, refined, and then refined again. Before accepting a “pretty” or “comprehensive” journey map alone, ask yourself and your potential research partner how all the data contained within a journey will be distilled down into the three essential outputs in a manner that will drive business decisions.

An electronics manufacturer came to us with the goal of winning more shoppers in the digital space. They had already pursued other avenues that did not bear fruit—the results of which they had trouble understanding and were hesitant to try to explain to their internal teams. We conducted a thorough discovery phase, including stakeholder interviews, social listening, and a review of the previous research. While the previous journey results were thorough and the stages of the journey matched the organization’s view of the shopping process, specific unanswered survey questions and a handful of odd results led us to determine that the stages of the journey were not shopper-centric—in fact, they were overcomplicated. Electronics buyers did not think of the journey in a five-step fashion; in their view, they took steps to research the product, and they took other steps to buy it.

Think About the Journey Holistically; Don’t be Wooed by Passive Data

Strive for a holistic omnichannel approach as your primary research foundation, adding onto it as needed. A more traditional qualitative plus quantitative research approach is currently the only single source of shopper insights bridging the O2O connection (online-to-offline and offline-to-online). Qualitative can take various forms, including digital shopalongs, online bulletin boards, or even triad/focus groups, depending on needs. For quantitative, mobile-first surveys are prevalent, but some categories may benefit from longitudinal methods to get closer to shopping activities.

Behavioral/passive data (e.g., clickstream, URL tracking, eye tracking) can be extremely valuable in illuminating the Purchase Journey and supporting activation efforts as a supplementary data input, but be aware of its gaps. Passive data is, inherently, only a slice of the entire picture:

• Passive data coverage includes only online journey touchpoints. Offline influences, like retail flyers, prior store trips, word-of-mouth, and print media are excluded, even though they may be top touchpoints driving conversion.
• Ask about device coverage. Don’t assume that digital behavior includes both desktop and mobile behavior, as it often does not.
• Ask about retailer coverage. Some ecommerce retailer sites block clickstream tracking, which can be a huge surprise if not anticipated up front.
• Passive data is often sourced separately from your primary research approach. Best efforts should be made to find a linkage to be able to analyze behaviors with attitudes. Some suppliers, including Burke, use single-source sampling for clickstream data, which is a subset of primary quantitative survey respondents with opt-in digital behavior tracking enabled. This automatically provides a hard connection to the survey data. When mobile behavior is necessary, Burke uses its Geode|AI™ solution to fuse disparate data sources.
• Clickstream lends itself to rich insights during the pre-purchase/research stage. URL tracking and eye tracking offer deeper insights during the moment of purchase stage on the retailer’s ecommerce site. These methodologies should not be used interchangeably.

If it Seems Too Good to be True, It Likely Is

Buyer’s remorse is real when it comes to Purchase Journey work. Just as there are disruptors in your category(s), there are disruptors in the market research field—many of which are tech start-ups with limited shopper or market research expertise.

• A good rule of thumb is that shopper journey work should cover the who, what, where, why, when, and how of shopping in a category, wherever shoppers research and buy.
• Research methodologies tend to be specialized (e.g., quant measures, qual understands why, behavioral often dives into where and how, etc.), and you will probably need to blend multiple methods to achieve all your goals. So, ensure your research supplier has a plan in place to fuse disparate data sources, whether it be a hard or soft synthesis.
• If a supplier claims a single research methodology that solves all your issues, investigate further to ensure that there will be a clear understanding of the “why” behind the “what.”

Embrace Partnership Throughout, and Particularly at the Bookends of the Study

As a brand leader, you know your business better than anyone else. When you choose wisely, you partner with a research supplier who is an expert in shopper behavior. Better outcomes happen when we work together.

The last thing a research supplier wants to hear is, “well, we already knew that.”  To ensure research results are reliable, relevant, and—most importantly—actionable, judicious planning is vital. Planning should include an inventory of the current landscape, anticipation of how current tasks affect adjacent work activities, and recognition that different stakeholders may be able to add incremental value to research goals and design. Even when you and your research partner are excited to dive into the study, planning is an insurance policy for success.

The electronics study mentioned earlier is a best-in-class example of true partnership. Our partner shared as much as they could as soon as they could at the beginning of the study. By leveraging existing qualitative shopalongs, we were able to design a holistic quantitative survey with an added clickstream deep dive into digital behavior.

Anchored in this approach, we were able to provide more strategic perspective:

• We took a holistic view of the brand’s impact throughout journey touchpoints and used Geode|AI™ along with attribution modelling to identify which were most impactful.
• Competitive benchmarks clearly established where the client was winning and losing in critical phases of the journey.
• We provided purchase abandonment metrics that shed light on who was choosing not to buy, and why.
• The triangulation of qualitative data, quantitative survey data, and clickstream data using Geode|AI™ pointed to earned media and the company’s website as the top areas of opportunity.

On the back end of the study, we set aside time for an iterative results process—building, refining, and improving the output together. Our client is now leveraging our recommendations in a variety of ways, including:

• Evolving its social media strategy, because earned media was identified as a gap.
• Optimizing the experience on their website, making it easier to shop earlier in the journey, where many consumers were lost.
• Developing a playbook to help retail partners optimize their online experience.