Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies, 6th Edition

Chapter 1

Mapping the Digital Buyer’s Journey

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining the stages from browser to buyer

Picking apart the modern sales funnel

Fine-tuning the online buying process for a smooth ride

Information is power. There’s little debate that a well-educated buyer is a smart buyer, and the Internet has truly empowered today’s consumer online and off. That means that how and when a purchase is made has changed significantly in the last two decades. For example, despite the complexity of many business-to-business (B2B) purchases, Gartner Research shows that buyers spend only 19 percent of their time meeting with a vendor (the seller) when considering a purchase. And only 5 percent of their time may involve an actual salesperson! Why? Consider that analysts also estimate that as much as 70 percent of B2B buyers have already made or narrowed their decision to buy before seeking late-stage sales assistance from your business. For business-to-consumer (B2C) buyers, that number jumps to as much as 90 percent! Of course, this difference in buyer behavior isn’t too surprising. A B2C purchase is often less complicated (buyers simply complete the online check-out process) compared to a ...