How to Build an Ecommerce Customer Journey Map

What is ecommerce customer journey?

The ecommerce customer journey is a visual representation of how someone interacts with your online store, from the moment they first hear about your product, all the way through to buying it, and even what happens after the purchase.

What are the key stages of the ecommerce customer journey?

Here are the five key stages of the ecommerce customer journey:

1.Awareness

This is where your potential customers first learn about your product. They might find you through ads, social media, search engines, or a recommendation. Your goal here is to make a strong first impression and convince them to take a deeper look at your product.

2. Consideration

Now the customer is interested and starts exploring your products. They compare options, read reviews, and browse your website. You need to build trust, answer their questions, and show them why you’re the right choice.

3. Purchase

The customer decides to buy. This is where your website experience, product info, and checkout process need to be fast, easy, and reassuring. Any friction here can cause them to leave before completing the sale.

4.Retention

After the purchase, your job is to keep the customer happy. Great customer support regarding usage issues, latest updates, and thoughtful follow-ups can turn a one-time buyer into a repeat customer.

5. Recommendation

This is the phase when a satisfied customer promotes your company to other. They might leave a review, tell friends, or post about your brand online. This stage helps fuel growth through word of mouth and trust.

How to create a customer journey map

Let’s walk through how to create a customer journey map from scratch

1. Define the goal and customer focus

Before you start creating your ecommerce customer journey map, you need to be clear on two things: What’s your goal with this map and which customer group are you focusing on?

Ask yourself:

• What problem am I trying to solve?
•  Is there a place where customers drop off or get stuck?
•  Am I targeting a specific group  like first-time buyers, repeat customers, or mobile users?

Once you figure this out, write it down in a simple sentence. This will keep you focused as you build the map. 

For example, your focus statement can be something like "I want to understand why new users leave after visiting the product page"

2. Outline the stages and list the customer touchpoints

Now that you’ve defined your goal and target customer, it’s time to map out the stages of their journey and the touchpoints they interact with along the way.

Earlier, we outlined the five general stages of the ecommerce customer journey - Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, and Recommendation, but these can (and should) be adapted based on your business model, product type, or customer behavior.

Next, identify all relevant touchpoints for each stage. Touchpoints are the moments  where a customer engages with your brand. 

These could include your website or mobile app, digital ads and marketing emails, social media interactions, conversations with customer support, packaging and delivery experience, or even follow-up surveys after a purchase.

To define the right touchpoints for your business, ask yourself three key questions:

• Where does the interaction happen like does happen on a device, platform, or in a physical or digital space?

• What is the customer trying to do at that moment, dor example, are they learning about your brand, evaluating options, making a purchase, or solving a problem?

• How are they feeling -  is there any confusion, friction, frustration, or delight that might shape their perception of your brand?

 3. Build the customer journey map template

Now that you have a clear understanding of your customer’s goals, the journey stages, it’s time to create  your customer journey map template.

You don’t need fancy software to start, a simple spreadsheet, whiteboard, or even a large sheet of paper works. 

The goal is to create a table that helps you see how your customer moves through each stage, what they’re doing, and how you can improve.

Here’s how I usually set it up:

• On the top row, write the stages you’re focusing on - Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, Recommendation

• On the first column, include themes or categories that help you break down each stage, such as:
  
  • Customer actions: What is the customer doing at this point?
  • Touchpoints: Where is the interaction happening?
  • Goals: What is the customer trying to accomplish?
  •  Pain points: What’s making this step hard or frustrating?
  • Emotions: How is the customer feeling?
  • Opportunities: How can you improve their experience?

You can add or remove rows based on what’s most useful for your team.

 4. Analyze the journey and find areas to improve

Once your journey map is filled in, it’s time to step back and analyze what it’s telling you.  

Ask yourself:

• Where are customers getting stuck or dropping off? Is there a page with high exit rates or a checkout flow that’s too long?

• Which touchpoints create frustration or confusion? Look for pain points, unanswered questions, or areas with poor UX.

• Where are emotions negative? If customers feel overwhelmed, misled, or anxious at any stage, that’s a signal something needs to change.

•  Are there inconsistent experiences across channels or devices? For example, does the mobile experience lag behind desktop?

•  What are the quick wins vs. longer-term fixes? Some issues may just need a copy tweak or button fix. Others may require deeper design, tech, or content changes.

Soon you’ll start spotting what’s working, what’s broken, and where customers might be slipping through the cracks.

Tip: Overlay actual customer data in the map like bounce rates, heatmaps, or feedback from surveys. This helps validate the pain points and opportunities you identify in the map.

5. Take action and improve the journey map

Finally turn insights into action. Start by identifying which issue you discovered previously will you prioritize. Not every touchpoint needs fixing at once. Focus on:

• High-impact problems (where most users drop off)

• Quick wins that are easy to fix

•  Bottlenecks in the purchase path

Share the journey map with relevant teams like  product, marketing, support  and assign clear next steps. For example:

• UX team improves the mobile product page layout

• Marketing adds shipping details earlier in the funnel

•  Support writes better help articles based on common issues

After making changes, track how they perform. Use A/B tests, user feedback, and analytics to see if conversion rates, engagement, or satisfaction scores improve.

Types of ecommerce customer journey maps 

Not every customer shops the same way. That’s why it helps to look at their journey from different angles. Here are four types of maps that help you understand and improve the shopping experience

1. Current journey map

This map focuses on how your customers currently experience your online store—from discovering your product to completing a purchase and beyond. This is great for finding technical frictional points like slow checkout, confusing product details, or lack of support.

For example, many of your customers leave at checkout. The map helps you realize your store doesn’t support mobile payments, so you add Apple Pay and Google Pay to fix it.

2. Day to day customer journey map

This map looks at your customer’s entire day, not just their interaction with your brand. You analyze their habits, routines, and moments of need so you can meet them where they are.

This map is typically used to figure out and introduce content at  the right time.

You find that many of your customers scroll Facebook during their lunch break. You schedule product teasers and discount stories for 12–1 PM when they’re most active.

3. Future state journey map

This map lays out the ideal experience you want to create for your customers. It aligns your team around long-term goals like better personalization or higher retention rate.

This is best for visualizing the best version of your customer experience and guiding future improvements.

For example, you want returning customers to skip the cart and reorder instantly. The map leads you to implement a “Buy Again” button that pulls from past orders.

Best practices for creating an ecommerce customer journey map

Creating an ecommerce customer journey map takes time, collaboration, and ongoing iteration. Below are some best practices that will ease some parts of your process: 

1. Let data guide your ecommerce journey mapping

When mapping your ecommerce customer journey, start with data and keep coming back to it. Pull insights from your analytics platforms (like GA4, Shopify analytics, or Mevrik), on-site behavior tracking (such as heatmaps or session recordings), customer reviews, support tickets, and survey responses. Look at:

• Where customers bounce or drop off (e.g., product page or checkout)

•  What devices they use most

•  Which channels drive high-value traffic (organic, paid, social, etc.)

2. Involve cross-functional teams from the start

An ecommerce customer journey touches many parts of your business  so your map should too. Bring in people from:

•  UX and design, who understand usability and mobile interactions

•  Engineering, who know the constraints and capabilities of your site

•  Customer support, who hear firsthand about customer pain points

•  Marketing, who know which touchpoints drive traffic and conversions

For example, if you’re mapping a drop-off in cart completion:

•  Your UX designer might suggest a better checkout layout

•  Your developer can flag performance issues on mobile

•  Your support rep can explain why customers abandon carts (“no clear return policy”)

3.Segment different ecommerce audiences

Not every customer follows the same path. A first-time mobile shopper behaves differently than a returning desktop buyer. Your ecommerce journey maps should reflect that.

Consider layering different personas, such as:

•  First-time visitors vs. loyal customers

•  Mobile vs. desktop users
• Price-sensitive shoppers vs. premium buyers

4. Walk the ecommerce journey yourself

One of the simplest exercises to improve customer journey is to take the customer journey yourself.

Put yourself in your shopper’s shoes, and: 

•  Click on one of your Instagram or Google ads
•  Browse your product listing page on mobile
•  Add an item to cart and go through the full checkout flow
•  Ask a question via live chat or email
•  Try returning something

You’ll quickly notice small (or big) annoyances such as maybe a slow load time, unclear shipping info, or a confusing promo code field. 

Final thoughts

Give yourself and your team enough time to build the journey map thoughtfully. In my experience, mapping the current ecommerce journey usually takes about 3–4 hours per customer segment but it heavily depends upon if you are doing it solo or on a team. If you're working on an improved or future-state version, block off 5–6 hours with the right stakeholders.

Make sure to involve people from across your ecommerce business, not just marketing. Each department sees different parts of the customer experience and can offer insights you’d otherwise miss.

Once your journey map is ready, don’t let it collect dust. Print it out. Share it in team meetings. Embed it in onboarding docs. The more visible and referenced it is, the more likely it’ll drive real improvements across your customer experience.

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