Member-only story
How to increase conversion by looking at your e-commerce customer experience as a Hero’s Journey
The amazing benefits of aligning each step in your e-commerce website customer journey to this time-tested story structure
The Hero’s Journey is arguably the most well-known story structure used today in movies, television, fiction, and even presentations and speeches.
It speaks deeply to how we make decisions as human beings, and it translates lessons, life skills, and new experiences to us in a way that we can understand without having to experience them ourselves.
Simply put, the Hero’s Journey, mirrors the human experience, and as it does, we see ourselves mirrored through it.
So how can something so… fluffy, and ephemeral, help us to improve the conversion rate on our e-commerce website?
Simple.
Our experiences are stories as we live them. Our decisions follow the steps of a Hero’s Journey, no matter how difficult or trivial they are.
So therefore it follows, that the experience of purchasing something on your website would also follow the same pattern.
And guess what.
Through my 10 years of web design & optimisation experience I can tell you this… it does.
So how can we use this structure in practice?
Breaking down each step of your customer journey as a story
Let’s first look at each step of your e-commerce customer journey. This may not be exactly the same as yours, but for most businesses, this aligns very closely to the experience of their customers:
- Your customer — Your ideal customer before they know you
- Your digital marketing — The first time they see your brand or business
- Your re-marketing or organic traffic — How you re-engage them with your product or offer
- Your product page — Where they logically and emotionally weigh the decision of purchase
- Your basket & checkout — Where they make the final choice to continue or abandon…
