At Create8, we hear the same story time and time again. A brand invests in a beautiful new eCommerce store with a modern design and beautiful visuals, only to find it doesn’t convert visitors into sales. Usually, the problem isn’t the design itself, but the user flow behind it.
Even the most visually impressive eCommerce website design won’t convert visitors into sales if the user journey is confusing or difficult to follow. While stylish product galleries and high-quality typography may give your store the wow factor, it’s a clear, intuitive customer journey that ultimately drives conversions.
A well-designed and streamlined user flow helps to remove friction at every stage of the customer’s journey, making it easier for them to find products, navigate your store, and make a purchase.
In this article, we’ll explain what eCommerce user flows are, how they impact conversion rates, and how to map and optimise them to improve the user journey.
What are user flows?
A user flow is the path a person takes through a website to complete a specific task (i.e., make a purchase or create an account).
User flows, often drawn as flowcharts, act as a roadmap. They help everyone on the eCommerce team to visualise a customer’s journey through the website.
In eCommerce, there are two types of user flow to consider:
- The intended (or designed) user flow: the ideal journey you’d like customers to take.
- The actual user flow: the journey a real-life customer has taken.
For example, an intended user flow might look like this:
- Homepage > Category page > Product page > Basket > Checkout
- Google Search > Product page > Basket > Checkout
- Instagram Ad > Landing Page > Subscription sign-up
However, in reality, most real-life customer journeys aren’t this linear – they’re usually a lot messier than this!
An actual user flow could look something like this:
- Google search > Product page > Reviews > Delivery information > Back to product > Search for discount code > Basket > Checkout
Visualising actual user flows is useful for pinpointing friction, helping you to remove unnecessary barriers and streamline the customer journey to improve conversion rates.
How do user flows influence conversion rates?
When building an eCommerce store, you want to make it as easy as possible for customers to complete their journey and convert – because friction kills conversion rates.
When we talk about friction, we mean any kind of barrier that might slow a user down or prevent them from completing a goal on your website. Common causes of friction in eCommerce include:
- Confusing navigation.
- Unnecessary clicks.
- Hidden costs.
- Slow-loading pages.
- Long checkout process.
- Poor mobile usability.
- Missing product information.
Every extra click or moment of uncertainty creates friction and increases the likelihood that the customer will leave without buying anything.
If the user flow is not streamlined, customers who like your products may encounter small frustrations that make continuing their journey feel like too much effort – causing them to leave without converting.
Optimising user flow isn’t about creating the perfect customer journey – it’s about making sure that your store is designed to accommodate real customer behaviour. The easier you make it for customers to find the information they need and recover from distractions, the more likely they are to buy something from you.
Why user flows should always come before design
Mapping out user flows isn’t just about improving the customer experience; it also helps make the design and development team more efficient, helping to avoid delays and expensive rebuilds.
At Create8, we often see businesses jump straight into designing page layouts before they’ve answered important questions about how the website should function. Mapping out user flows first helps you establish the logic behind the customer journey, providing designers and developers with a shared understanding of how customers should move through the website.
Without that roadmap, developers constantly have to ask questions about what happens when customers take a specific action, and every question has the potential to become a delay, a change request, or an expensive rebuild.
That’s why at Create8, we don’t start with colours and fonts; we begin by defining the rules that will shape the customer journey.
Once these rules have been agreed and mapped out using user flows, our designers and developers can begin creating interfaces that support them.
How to map out eCommerce user flows
Mapping user flows helps everyone involved in your project to visualise the ideal customer journey, identify friction points, and work together to create a more streamlined path to conversion.
Here’s a basic step-by-step guide to get you started with mapping eCommerce user flows:
Step 1: Define your goal
Start by deciding what action you want your customers to take. This should be something like:
- Complete their first purchase.
- Sign up for a subscription.
- Buy a specific product.
Every user flow should be built around a single objective.
Step 2: List all entry points
Customers don’t always enter your website through the front door. Sometimes they may arrive from:
- Social media
- Paid advertising
- Product listings
Each entry point may require a slightly different journey.
Step 3: Map the ideal customer journey
Now, plot out the simplest route customers can take to reach the desired outcome.
This could be something like:
Homepage > Product page > Basket > Checkout > Order confirmation
Step 4: Identify what could go wrong
In reality, customers rarely follow the perfect path.
So next, think about all the things that could go wrong and derail them on their journey. This could be things like:
- An item is out of stock.
- A discount code doesn’t work.
- They want to research delivery costs.
- Their payment fails.
- They leave to compare prices.
Planning for these situations can help customers overcome frustrations and recover from distractions to complete their journey.
Step 5: Find friction points
With your user flow mapped, review the customer journey and look for friction points like:
- Unnecessary clicks.
- Missing information.
- Unclear copy.
- Hard to find information.
- Long checkout process.
- Ineffective calls to action.
Sometimes, it’s the small tweaks that make the biggest difference to customer experience and conversion rates.
Step 6: Prioritise the biggest opportunities
Start by optimising the parts of the journey that will have the biggest impact on conversion rates, particularly the shopping cart and checkout process.
Step 7: Test and refine
Once finished, test your user flows with real users. You can use analytics tools, heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback to keep monitoring customer behaviour and refining your user flows over time.
At Create8, we map customer journeys before a single page is designed. We use Figma to map out interactive user flows, allowing us to visualise the entire customer journey before any coding begins. This way, important questions are answered early on in the project and don’t end up becoming expensive development changes later down the line.
Optimising the highest impact parts of your user flow
Some parts of the customer journey have a bigger impact on conversion rates than others. So, if you’re looking for quick wins, start by optimising the areas where customers are most likely to hesitate or change their mind.
Product pages
Your product pages need to clearly communicate everything customers may need to know before they make a purchase. If questions are left unanswered and customers feel unable to make an informed decision, there’s a risk they’ll go elsewhere.
Make sure your product pages include all the following important information:
- High-quality images and videos.
- Detailed product descriptions.
- Customer reviews.
- Delivery information.
- Returns policy.
- Sizing guides.
- Clear calls to action.
Shopping basket
Many customers hesitate here before making their final purchasing decision. They may pause and ask themselves questions like:
- Can I trust this retailer?
- Can I buy this cheaper elsewhere?
- Is it easy to return the item?
- Will it arrive on time?
Anticipate these questions and make sure customers can find the answers easily. They should also be able to amend items in their basket easily, without unnecessary frustration or distractions.
Checkout
By the time the customer reaches the checkout, the sale is nearly in the bag, so don’t mess it up!
You can boost conversion rates at this stage by keeping the process as fast and straightforward as possible. Ways to optimise the checkout include:
- Offering guest checkout.
- Minimise the number of form fields.
- Supporting a wide variety of payment methods.
- Displaying the number of steps that remain.
Mobile experience
Most eCommerce traffic now comes from mobile devices, so your user flows need to work equally well on a smartphone as they do on a desktop.
Pay particular attention to:
- Easy-to-tap buttons.
- Simple navigation.
- Short forms.
- Fast-loading pages.
Keep refining your user flows
As your website evolves, so will customer behaviour – and so should your user flows! New products, seasonal campaigns, and changing customer expectations will all influence the way users interact with your website.
Make it a habit to regularly review analytics, heatmaps, and session recordings to look for new points of friction. Then, update your user flows and refine the user experience (UX) to continue improving conversion rates over time.
Partner with Create8 to optimise your eCommerce user flows
If your website looks the part but isn’t converting as well as you’d hoped, we can help you review and optimise your user flow.
At Create8, we help Shopify stores and eCommerce brands to identify friction points and optimise their store’s customer journey to start winning more conversions. From user flow mapping and UX design to Shopify Development and conversion rate optimisation, we can help you build a smoother shopping experience.
Contact us today by calling 0161 820 9686 or emailing hello@create8.co.uk.
eCommerce user flow FAQs
How often do user flows need to be reviewed?
It’s good practice to review your user flows at least once a quarter, or anytime you make a significant change to your store, such as introducing new features or launching a new collection.
What’s the difference between a user flow and a customer journey?
A user flow looks at the steps a user takes to complete a specific task, while a customer journey looks at every interaction a customer has with a brand.
What tools can I use to map user flows?
Figma, Miro, and Lucidchart are all popular tools for mapping user flows.
