February 13, 2025

Customer Journey Mapping: Solution to Touchpoints Optimization (With E-commerce Case Study)

Customer journey mapping is a powerful tool that helps businesses across various industries understand and optimize their customer interactions. It allows companies to enhance engagement, improve customer satisfaction, and drive higher conversions by identifying key touchpoints and potential pain points. When complemented by data-driven insights from online surveys, a customer journey map gains greater depth, enabling businesses to uncover nuanced customer behaviors, preferences, and decision-making patterns. This article examines the application of customer journey mapping, using cross-border e-commerce as a case study to illustrate how online surveys enhance the mapping process and provide actionable insights.

What is Customer Journey Mapping?

A customer journey map is a visual representation of every step a customer takes when interacting with a business. It outlines their experiences, emotions, and decisions from the initial awareness stage to making a purchase and beyond—including post-purchase engagement and brand loyalty.

Main 5 Stages of a Customer Journey

Awareness: The stage where potential customers first discover a brand through ads, social media, word-of-mouth.
Consideration: Customers start researching the product or service and comparable options to evaluate whether it fits their needs.
Decision: When customers finalize their buying decision, factors like customer reviews, brand reputation, and ease of purchase are influential.
Post-Purchase: The customer's experience after buying—delivery, product usage, and support.
Loyalty & Advocacy: If satisfied, customers may become repeat buyers and even advocates, recommending the brand to others.

How Does Customer Journey Mapping Drive Business Success?

By mapping out customer journey stages, businesses can pinpoint areas of friction, enhance customer interactions, and streamline experiences to boost satisfaction and loyalty. Below are key insights that can be derived from this process:

Key friction points where customers face obstacles, leading to drop-offs.
Opportunities to enhance engagement at critical touchpoints, improving conversion rates.
Preferred communication channels and messaging styles that resonate most with customers.
Service gaps that hinder post-purchase satisfaction and long-term retention.
Regional and behavioral differences in customer expectations, allowing for targeted optimizations.

Application of Customer Journey Map and Online Surveys (Case Study: Cross-border E-commerce)

Step-to-Step Guide to Start a Customer Journey Map

Creating an effective customer journey map requires a structured approach that includes data collection, behavioral analysis, and emotional mapping. Here are the key steps:

1. Setting Persona & Goals

First of all, define the target audience by analyzing demographics, purchasing behaviors, and motivations. This helps to build personas that reflect real customer needs. Once personas are established, companies should set clear goals, such as increasing checkout completion rates or improving post-purchase engagement.

2. Mapping Customer Behavior at Each Stage

Identify customer actions chronologically across the journey (Awareness → Consideration → Purchase → Post-Purchase → Loyalty). Online surveys provide valuable behavioral insights for this step. For example:

Target Audience: Shoppers considering international purchases and returning customers
Purpose: Understanding factors influencing purchase decisions and hesitations in cross-border transactions
Example Questions:

"What made you consider purchasing internationally?"
"What specific product details or guarantees would make you feel more confident in making a cross-border purchase?"
"Are there any concerns that discouraged you from purchasing?"

3. Organizing Customer Emotions and Thoughts in Each Action Phase

After identifying customers' emotions and behaviors in each stage, it is found out that customers are encountering obstacles that may prevent them from completing a purchase. Here are 3 examples of the key concerns:

Quality Assurance – Concerns about product authenticity and reliability.
International Logistics – Uncertainty about shipping time, costs, and reliability.
Payment – Limited or untrusted payment options that deter transactions.

4. Organizing Insights & Planning Next Steps

Based on the insights from the customer journey map and survey findings, there are possible actions to better match expectations of international shoppers such as modifying product descriptions, shipping policies, and payment options, or optimizing marketing strategies to address concerns related to product authenticity.

Continuous refinement of a Customer Journey

Customer journey mapping is a dynamic process that requires continuous refinement. Conducting in-depth analyses of barriers identified in the previous mapping process helps pinpoint root causes and track improvements effectively.

Awareness & Consideration Stage: Quality Assurance

The Challenge: Customers hesitate due to trust issues regarding product authenticity and lack of verified reviews.

How Online Surveys Help:

Example Questions:

"What information would make you more confident in our product quality?"
"Do customer reviews influence your buying decision? Why or why not?"

Potential Insights:

Identifying the most influential product attributes for conversions
Determining the role of customer reviews in purchase decisions
Assessing the impact of trust signals like warranties and certifications

Action Plans:

Consider refining product pages, add customer testimonials, and provide third-party quality certifications to create more compelling product pages that instill confidence and drive sales.

Purchase Stage: Logistics & Payment Barriers

The Challenge: Customers abandon their carts due to high shipping costs, unavailable payment methods, or unexpected duties.

How Online Surveys Help:

Example Questions:

"What prevented you from completing your purchase?"
"Which payment method do you trust the most for online purchases?"

Potential Insights:

The most common shipping concerns that cause cart abandonment
Preferred delivery options across different regions
The impact of transparent pricing on purchase completion rates.

Action Plans:

Optimize shipping options, introduce localized payment methods, and provide clearer cost breakdowns to streamline logistics, reduce unexpected costs, and enhance the overall customer experience.

Post-Purchase Stage: Logistics & Quality Assurance

The Challenge: Customers experience delivery delays, unexpected fees, or dissatisfaction with product quality.

How Online Surveys Help:

Example Questions:

"How satisfied were you with the delivery process?"
"Did the product meet your expectations? Why or why not?"

Potential Insights:

Common causes of delivery dissatisfaction
Effectiveness of shipping providers
How delays impact customer retention

Action Plans:

Refine logistics strategies and enhance logistics partnerships to improve estimated delivery accuracy.
Pay attention to product quality standards and guarantee post-purchase communication to build trust.

Leveraging Customer Journey Mapping for Long-Term Success

When integrated with online surveys, customer journey mapping provides businesses with actionable insights to enhance engagement, optimize touchpoints, and improve overall customer satisfaction—critical for delivering a seamless experience. By continuously analyzing and refining the journey, companies can identify root causes of friction, adapt strategies accordingly, and track evolving customer behaviors to drive sustained improvements.

Z.com Engagement Lab is ready to support your customer journey mapping. Our online respondent network connects you to 65 million real consumers across 16 APAC regions, enabling you to gather essential data from your target audience. We provide comprehensive support, from questionnaire design to report generation, ensuring you receive the insights needed to refine your strategies. Contact us below for more details!