Customer Journey Map Template for Ecommerce Stores

Key Takeaways

• A customer journey map records each stage a customer goes through with your store, what they need at each one, and what you do about it.
• For an online store we use six stages: discover, consider, buy, receive, use and come back.
• The stages after the order, receive, use and come back, are where most templates stop and most repeat revenue is won or lost.
• Build the map from evidence: Shopify's customer reports, analytics, reviews, support emails, surveys and session recordings.
• Of the last 50 startup stores we took on, 37 had no welcome flow live, one of the most common gaps a journey map reveals.
• Turn every weak point into a fix with an owner and a measure, and review the map every six to twelve months.

Quick Answer

A customer journey map template for an online store lists the six stages of the journey (discover, consider, buy, receive, use and come back) and, for each stage, records what the customer does and needs, the touchpoints where they meet your brand, what you do there and how you measure it. Fill it in from real evidence such as Shopify's reports, reviews and support emails, mark the weakest points, and turn each one into a fix. The template and a worked example are below.

Table of Contents

• What Is a Customer Journey Map?
• The Six Stages of an Ecommerce Customer Journey
• The Customer Journey Map Template
• A Worked Example: A Shopify Coffee Brand
• How to Build Your Map in Five Steps
• Touchpoints and Measures by Stage
• Where Most Stores Find Gaps
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

Most online stores know their conversion rate and their best selling products. Far fewer can describe what a customer experiences between seeing an ad and placing a second order. A customer journey map makes that visible on one page, and the gaps it shows are often the cheapest growth a store will find.

What Is a Customer Journey Map?

A customer journey map is a simple document that follows a customer through every stage of their relationship with your store. For each stage it records what the customer is doing and trying to achieve, what worries them, where they meet your brand, and what you do at that point.

It is a working tool, not a design exercise. A good map fits on one page, is built from evidence rather than assumptions, and ends with a list of fixes.

The Six Stages of an Ecommerce Customer Journey

1. Discover: the customer first comes across you, through an ad, a search, a social post, a creator or a recommendation.
2. Consider: they compare you with alternatives, read product pages and reviews, and check delivery and returns.
3. Buy: they add to basket and check out, or abandon.
4. Receive: order confirmation, delivery updates, the parcel and the packaging.
5. Use: they open and use the product, and get help if they need it.
6. Come back: they reorder, review, recommend or subscribe, or quietly drift away.

Generic templates often stop at the purchase. For an online store the last three stages matter just as much, because they decide whether the customer you paid to acquire ever buys again.

The Customer Journey Map Template

Copy this template into a document or spreadsheet and fill in one row per stage. The prompts in each cell are the questions to answer.

A Worked Example: A Shopify Coffee Brand

Here is the template filled in for an illustrative Shopify coffee brand selling beans online, the kind of store we work with often. Your answers will differ; the point is the level of detail.

Real results from coffee clients show why the later stages matter. One coffee client's TikTok Shop campaign made £2,375 in its first 6 weeks with a negative ROAS, but brought enough first time customers that their lifetime value made it profitable. Halo Coffee's conversion rate rose from 0.5% to 3% after its relaunch with specialist product photography, a consider stage fix.

How to Build Your Map in Five Steps

1. Gather evidence. Shopify's customer reports include new and returning customers and a customer cohort analysis that groups customers by the date of their first order. Add analytics paths, reviews, support emails and a short post purchase survey.
2. Watch real sessions. Session recordings, for example from Microsoft Clarity, which we use for conversion work, show where people hesitate.
3. Fill in the template stage by stage, using customers' own words wherever possible.
4. Mark the weakest points: where people drop out, complain or go quiet.
5. Turn each one into a fix with an owner, a deadline and a measure, and start with the cheapest fixes on the biggest drop outs.

Touchpoints and Measures by Stage

Where Most Stores Find Gaps

The same gaps come up again and again when we map journeys with clients:

• No welcome flow. Of the last 50 startup stores we took on, 37 had no welcome flow live. Across our Klaviyo clients, the welcome series and abandoned cart flows are normally the best performing flows.
• Thin product pages at the consider stage. Redesigned product pages typically lift conversion rate by about two percentage points where the page was badly designed.
• Checkout friction. Surprise delivery costs and limited payment options; after we added Klarna for a client selling wedding dresses, conversion rate rose by 23%.
• Silence after delivery. No help using the product, no review request and no reason to come back.
• No plan for lapsing customers. Our highest revenue email campaign across clients is a generous code for customers about to lapse, with a reminder that it expires at midnight tonight.

Our guides to getting repeat customers and increasing Shopify conversions cover the fixes in detail.

Why Matters Perspective

A journey map is one of the most useful hours a store owner can spend, because it shifts attention from getting more traffic to keeping more of the customers you already pay for. When we onboard subscription clients, the most common strategy failure we find is too much time on acquisition and not enough on retention, and the map makes that obvious within minutes.

We use Microsoft Clarity, on site surveys and customer reviews as research for conversion work, and Klaviyo for the flows that carry customers between stages. We are a Shopify Select partner and a Klaviyo partner, our pricing is published, and retainer clients are billed one month in arrears with no long contracts. For a free CRO audit, visit our CRO agency page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a simple document that sets out each stage a customer goes through with your store, from first hearing of you to buying again, and records what they do, need and feel at each stage alongside the touchpoints and actions on your side. Its purpose is to find the gaps where customers drop out.

What are the stages of the customer journey in ecommerce?

For an online store we use six stages: discover, consider, buy, receive, use and come back. The last three are often missing from generic templates, but they decide whether a customer returns, reviews and recommends you.

What should a customer journey map template include?

For each stage, include what the customer is doing and trying to achieve, their questions and worries, the touchpoints where they meet your brand, what you do at that point, and the measure that tells you whether it works. Keep it to one page so the whole team can use it.

How do I create a customer journey map for my online store?

Gather evidence first: Shopify's customer reports, analytics paths, reviews, support emails, post purchase surveys and session recordings. Then fill in the template stage by stage, mark the weakest points, and turn each one into a fix with an owner and a measure.

What are customer journey touchpoints?

Touchpoints are the places a customer meets your brand: ads, search results, social posts, product pages, checkout, order emails, delivery, packaging, the product itself, customer service and follow up emails. Each one either moves the customer forward or gives them a reason to stop.

How does email fit into the customer journey?

Email and SMS carry customers between stages: a welcome series turns subscribers into buyers, abandoned cart flows recover hesitant buyers, and post purchase flows help customers use the product and come back. Across our client stores, email is a median 30% of revenue.

How often should I update a customer journey map?

Review it every six to twelve months, and whenever something important changes, such as a new product range, a new sales channel, a new delivery partner or a change in what customers say in reviews and support emails.

Final Thoughts

A customer journey map turns a vague sense that something is not working into a specific list of fixes. Use the six stages, fill in the template from evidence, and pay as much attention to what happens after the order as before it.

Start with the biggest drop outs and the cheapest fixes, then review the map every six to twelve months. If you would like help mapping your store's journey, email us.

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• Customer Lifetime Value for Shopify Stores
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