Website and customer journey – where companies lose customers
In the digital age, a website is no longer just a showcase for a company. Today, it is the focal point of every interaction with the customer, a key element of the customer journey—from the first contact with the brand to purchase and loyalty. In practice, however, many entrepreneurs still make mistakes that result in low conversion rates despite high website traffic, with users leaving before making a purchase or staying with the brand for longer.
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What is the customer journey and how does it relate to a website?
The customer journey is the entire path of the customer’s experience – from the moment they first encounter the brand, through researching the offer and making a purchase decision, to the post-sale experience and loyalty. It is not just a sequence of steps in the sales funnel, but the entire customer journey in contact with the brand, including the emotions, needs, and questions that arise at each stage.
The website is one of the most important touchpoints in the customer journey, because that is where the decisive part of the interaction often takes place. Customers view the offer, compare solutions, check the credibility of the brand, and finalize the purchase. Any problem with usability, navigation, or communication immediately translates into a loss of engagement and conversion. However, many marketers still treat the website as a secondary element or do not sufficiently analyze user behavior on it.
Where companies most often lose customers on their websites
1. Lack of understanding of the real user path
Companies often design websites based on their own assumptions rather than on how users actually behave. This is a mistake that results in the customer journey on the website not meeting the actual expectations and needs of the audience. The customer journey should be mapped based on data, not intuition. If you don’t analyze how a customer moves from first contact to conversion, it’s easy to overlook the moments when they get lost or give up.
2. Usability and responsiveness issues
Today’s users browse websites on multiple devices. If the website is not responsive and the interface elements are difficult to view on mobile phones, the customer journey is interrupted – the bounce rate increases and potential customers quickly leave. This is a classic example of a technical barrier in the customer journey that can be easily identified by analyzing user behavior.
3. Poor information architecture and too many stimuli
Another point where companies lose customers is information chaos on the website. If the content is disorganized or the user has to search through many subpages before finding what they are looking for, their experience becomes tiresome. As a result, they interrupt the customer journey and give up on further steps. In this age of information overload, it is worth simplifying communication, highlighting key content, and guiding the customer through the next steps one by one.
4. Difficulties with navigation and lack of a logical path
If a user visits a website and does not know where to click next to find an offer, shopping cart, or contact information, their customer journey is interrupted. Elements such as menus, filters, internal search engines, and links must be designed with intuitive customer guidance in mind. Real-time analysis of customer behavior (e.g., heat maps, session recordings) allows you to identify places where users get lost.
5. Failure to use data to optimize the customer journey
It is not enough to simply collect data—it must be actively used to optimize the website. Many companies analyze traffic but do not implement changes based on this data. This leads to a situation where the same problems recur and users are discouraged from continuing their purchase journey. In practice, companies that combine quantitative data (e.g., Google Analytics) with qualitative data (e.g., user feedback) have greater knowledge of critical points in the customer journey and are able to eliminate them more quickly.
6. Ignoring the multichannel context
Today’s customer journey rarely takes place on a single platform. A customer may see an ad on social media, visit a website, then return via a newsletter, and finalize their purchase from a mobile app. If the website is not integrated with other touchpoints and does not take this omnichannel reality into account, the customer journey becomes fragmented and inconsistent.
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How a website can improve the customer journey instead of destroying it
1. Mapping the customer journey before designing or redesigning
Before we start designing or modernizing a website, it is worth creating a customer journey map – a visual representation of the actual user path along with their emotions and expectations. Such mapping allows us to identify touchpoints that are key to conversion and those that generate frustration or resignation.
2. Test user experiences in different scenarios
Regular usability tests, A/B tests, and sessions with real users help us understand which elements of the website improve the customer journey and which ones block it. This data-driven approach is now standard in professional digital experience design.
3. Use of analytical and automated tools
Analytical tools, including systems for mapping customer behavior on the website, allow you to collect metrics such as exit points, form errors, and moments of frustration. These signals are invaluable in the process of optimizing the customer journey and lead to increased conversion and customer satisfaction.
4. Designing with customer needs in mind
A website designed from the customer’s perspective (and not just the brand’s) better responds to their questions and concerns. Understanding the true expectations of your audience through empathy and UX data gives you a competitive advantage and positively impacts the user experience.
Summary
Today, a website is one of the key elements of the customer journey and, at the same time, one of the most common places where companies unknowingly lose customers. Not because the offer is bad, but because the user experience does not guide them smoothly through the subsequent stages of the decision-making process. A lack of understanding of the real customer path, information chaos, usability issues, or a website that is not adapted to the multi-channel way users navigate effectively interrupt the purchasing process.
Companies that treat a website solely as a graphic design or a collection of subpages overlook its strategic role in building customer relationships. Meanwhile, a well-designed website should actively support the customer journey, answer user questions at the right moment, and remove barriers before they become a reason for abandonment. It is in these details that the difference between traffic that “is” and traffic that actually converts lies.
Working with data and continuous optimization are key. Analyzing user behavior, testing solutions, and consciously designing experiences not only reduce customer churn, but also increase customer engagement and trust in the brand. In 2026, the winners will be those companies that understand that the customer journey does not end when they enter the website, but only then gains momentum. A website, designed as part of a coherent strategy, ceases to be a cost and becomes one of the brand’s strongest sales tools.
