1/33: Red Journeys to Green Journeys
In a previous essay, I had pointed to this conversion funnel from Smart Insights:
The second friction fraction presents a clear challenge: just 1 of 33 sessions on a website or app culminates in a transaction. These sessions could be described as ‘red journeys’, where potential customers are frustrated at multiple stages due to inadequate personalisation and relevance because the showcased products may not align with their interests. Succinctly put, the “value exchange” fails to materialise. Customers resist parting with their money as they perceive the value derived from the potential purchase insufficient. Consequently, the “Double Thank You” moment – where both brands and customers express gratitude for a successful, mutually beneficial transaction – remains elusive.
The problem is apparent: how can the ecommerce brand anticipate the customer’s next best action (product purchase) and subtly guide the customer towards it? The brand, in effect, needs to construct a ‘green journey’ that facilitates swift completion of transactions by the customers. This is where iDarpan comes in. It functions as a mirror world (akin to a metaverse), populated by each customer’s digital twin that interacts with a Generative AI-powered Large Customer Model (LCM). This digital counterpart always operates a few steps ahead of the real customer, absorbing insights from every action (or inaction) taken by the real customer. By comparing the customer’s data genome with those of other customers, it can make educated predictions about potential next best actions, offering recommendations accordingly.
In the fiercely competitive eCommerce arena, where customer loyalty is a prize to be won, LCMs can be game changers. When integrated within systems like iDarpan, they facilitate true one-to-one personalisation. By accurately predicting the next steps in a customer’s journey, brands can create highly customised experiences that resonate with customers, fostering loyalty and driving repeat purchases. In the long run, LCMs can enable brands to carve out a ‘profits monopoly’ (profipoly). As they mature, brands can maximise profitability by effectively nurturing their customer base.
With iDarpan, LCMs can power an eCommerce revolution, driving customer engagement at an individual level and shaping marketing strategies through predictive customer behaviour. This transformative approach can transform the future of eCommerce, mirroring the customer to reflect their needs, preferences, and behaviours, crafting a shopping experience that feels uniquely their own.
… iDarpan is thus about constructing the equivalent of a “Virtual You” for every customer and situating it in the context of a software-powered replica of their digital (and perhaps even physical) storefront… It helps brands beautify every profit killing customer experience—delighting both the customer and the eCommerce manager.
Consequently, the solution to the second friction of Red Journeys resulting in aborted conversions is a Green Journey powered by iDarpan. This involves digital twins and LCMs interacting within a mirror world, anticipating next best actions to eliminate obstacles and reduce drop-offs along the shopping journey. Brands can leverage iDarpan to implement real-time personalisation, adjusting the customer’s journey based on their actions and preferences identified by the digital twin and the LCM. With more personalised and satisfying shopping experiences, customers are likely to stay loyal to the brand, increasing their lifetime value, translating into lower marketing costs over the long term. This is a key ingredient in building a profipoly. iDarpan’s predictive capabilities could also be used to experiment with different strategies, allowing brands to test various approaches and learn what works best for different customer segments. This test and learn approach can help fine-tune the customer journey and maximise conversions.
