Compressed commerce: streamlining the customer journey

The key to conversion online is shrinking the time between inspiration, search and transaction

Compressing commerce, as we term it, is something Amazon has got down to a tee. Originally viewed as just a transactional site, the stats for Amazon now tell a completely different story – 52% of global consumers use the platform for inspiration, 63% visit to search for products and 27% make purchases.¹

And we’ve all been there, considering an Amazon purchase, and before we know it, we’ve bought. It’s just so simple and the process to buy is so seamless. Yet behind the simplicity, a variety of tools have been deployed to transition consumers through the journey – fast. One-touch purchasing, stored payment methods and personal details, easily retrievable ratings and reviews, and more, all contribute to quicker, easier purchasing, essentially compressing the customer journey.

In D2C (direct-to-consumer) the story is slightly different. Just 18% of consumers use D2C sites for inspiration, 33% search and 15% transact. Inspiring consumers should therefore be a prime focus, as well as retaining them once they’ve searched for products.

The emergence of social commerce will see this trend continue. Inspired social media users are currently forced off the social platform onto retailer or D2C sites to transact. It’s not exactly a seamless process today, but in the near future, once social media platforms nail in-platform purchasing, these users will be able to make purchases in an instant. This is compressed commerce at its finest.

Compressing commerce, from inspiration through to search and then transaction will mark out how the best ecommerce operators ensure conversion.

How can you achieve compressed commerce?

• Review your online commerce experience from inspiration, to search through to transaction.
• Review how quickly and easily consumers can complete this journey.
• Remove friction points to enable consumers to transact as quickly as possible.

Wunderman Thompson Commerce, The Future Shopper 2020, April 2020

Download Wunderman Thompson Commerce’s Futures 2021 Report for more trends to watch in 2021