The Buying Stages are an eCommerce customer journey framework we use to capture the most relevant motivations and anxieties typically experienced throughout the buying process.
The purpose is to evolve the way we look at a user journey which is most often achieved by flagging if a user reached ‘X’ page type. As part of our Intent Phases, knowing what buying stage a visitor is in will give you the necessary context of their journey
The buying stages are broken down into the following:
Browsing: The “I'm just having a look” people. All journeys begin in the Browsing stage before meaningfully engaging with one of the following stages. They couldn't be further away from placing an order and need to be approached as such.
Refining: The “I’m narrowing down” people. When users don’t direct straight to their chosen product they will find themselves ‘Refining’. These users are involved in looking for products by filtering, sorting and searching.
Evaluating: The “I know what I want” people. Evaluators are focused on a product or refined selection of products. Viewing images, selecting variants, reading descriptions and potentially comparing them.
Deciding: The “I’m done shopping” people. After the basket-building process Deciders are now at the early stages of placing an order. Depending on the user they could move quickly through to ordering or hesitate and come back later, maybe?
Committing: The “I’m ready to order” people. Committers are working through the final steps of placing an order. Entering delivery and payment information. No distractions at this stage in the journey, only support and confidence.
Post Purchase: The “I’ve just ordered” people. These users have just completed a purchase and are still on the site. After their session ends, so will their journey.
Users can move forwards and backwards through the stages and is intentionally designed so this is a key feature of the framework. How, when, and why users progress or backtrack through each stage is an extremely rich and actionable source of insight.