During Covid, there was a spike in the number of new ecommerce businesses going online. This lead to a sharp increase in competition within digital marketing, driving up acquisition costs and reducing the effectiveness of traditional digital marketing tactics. To continue to grow, ecommerce businesses must not only provide an exceptional customer journey, but optimise wherever they can along this journey to increase brand affinity, customer acquisition and loyalty.

In 2023 the customer journey map starts long before the top of the funnel, and extends way beyond the first conversion. Here are five of the most overlooked areas to focus on when optimizing your customer journey in 2023.

1. Grow brand awareness and build trust through partnerships: How a potential customer hears about you is almost as important as what they hear about you. Brand partnerships provide an instant credible recommendation to your brand, speeding up the process of getting the right shoppers interested in your brand and products at the start of their journey.

2. Connect with your customer: Creating the ultimate first experience for your customer is crucial. Personalising the first 7 seconds through a product quiz or capture forms can improve relevancy, engagement and conversion dramatically. There are multiple ways of doing this, and Digioh has simplified how you can personalise your store to your customers in a flash, including easy to use product and sales quiz's.

3. Provide more value on the path to purchase: You may not want to discount your products at a brand level, but once a customer has show intent and is on their way to check-out, you have an opportunity to add value to their experience and increase the likelihood of conversion and higher order value through targeted discounts and special offers with shopping-cart experiences. Discount Ninja gives you the flexibility to drive multiple promotion kinds with flexible messaging options to connect with new customers showing a high intent to convert.

4. Activate your post-purchase experience to grow sales: Another way to improve the customer journey is by leveraging the post-purchase experience. Aussie startup Splashup are reinventing partnerships through transactional discovery experiences on post-checkout pages. Enabling brands to 'recommend' complimentary products at their check-out page, adding a valuable timely discovery experience for customers. Turning this dead-space into a revenue generating discovery experience is both good for your customer, and for your business. Book a demo from Splashup today.

5. Don't underestimate the value of surprise and delight!  Delivering the goods on time, in a beautiful way is now considered the standard. Go above and beyond with sustainable packaging, personalised GWPs, and integrate online referral programs with physical cards and messages that create more meaning for new customers unboxing your product. Packleo makes it easy to start your sustainable and customised unboxing experience. By going above and beyond in your packaging and adding personalized touches, you can create a memorable experience for your customers and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.

By implementing the strategies described above, you can create a seamless customer journey that sets your brand apart and drives sales. Keep doing good business - happy selling!