The eCom Funnel Just Got An Upgrade

The traditional eCom funnel analogy is so freaking outdated.

Yeah, I said it.

Not the concept — the concept is fine. People find you, consider you, buy from you, come back, tell their friends. That part hasn’t changed. But how it’s taught and thought about is all wrong.

Or as one of my clients, Amanda from Cosy London, so perfectly puts it:

She’s not wrong. And she’s not alone.

Yes, every course, every marketing blog, every “growth strategist” on LinkedIn presents it as this neat little triangle with arrows pointing down with such confidence.

So I went and changed it! (You’re welcome.) And I am breaking it all down for you, here, for free, right now.

To Do That, I Need You to Think of Your Business as a Subway Line.

And your customers are passengers.

They get on at Discovery, as you steer towards that final VIP stop Advocacy — where they love you so much they tell other people about you.

Like with any subway (or tube or light rail), there is movement. Your people aren’t teleporting to each stop (duh!)

So what looks a bit like this:

Actually looks a lot more like this: 

At every station, some people get off and some get back on. And all along that line they are: 

• browsing
• considering
• buying
• receiving 
• and deciding if they will come back 

It’s your job to figure out where people are getting off — and why. And then meet them there with whatever they are looking for. 

Start by asking yourself this one question very quickly: 

“When sales drop, what do you usually blame first?”

If you immediately think ads (like most do), then you need to turn your funnel stages into journey stations.  

Shifting from “I need more traffic” to “I need to fix where people are dropping off” — is the single most valuable thing I can teach.

So hop on this train as I take you through the six stations of your eCom funnel.

Station 1: Discovery & Awareness

This platform is loud, busy and full of people going in every direction.

Your job isn’t to stand here with a product sign trying to get them to reach for their digital wallets — it’s just to get them moving from ‘oh look, a new brand’ to awareness ‘I see what they’re selling,’ and onto consideration ‘I like what they’re selling.’

This is where people first find out you exist and the journey more often than not starts off-site.

Where Boarding Happens:

1. Off-site: Google search, social media, PR/press, influencer collabs, marketplaces, word of mouth, ads, AI-generated recommendations
2. On-site: Landing pages, homepage (first visit), blog posts, popups

And how to measure if you’re winning here? 

You want to look at your: 

• total users & sessions
• traffic sources (direct, organic, social, paid, referral)
• new vs. returning visitor ratio
• impressions and reach (social/ads)

Are people finding you through search? Social? Direct (meaning they typed your brand name in — which actually tells you they already know about you from somewhere else)?

This matters a lot. Someone who started their journey to an awareness station on Instagram won’t need as much time traveling for consideration as someone who may come through for the first time from search.

They also will require different messaging and engagement to keep them on track.

Yay, they found you. Now: are they sticking around?

Station 2: Consideration & Engagement

This station isn’t just about keeping people on. It’s where old passengers re-enter and new ones almost leave. (And it’s the part of the journey so many founders get wrong.)

Some are reading the route map, figuring out if they want to stay on. Others are scrolling their phone, half paying attention. A few are already eyeing the exit at the next stop.

And meanwhile, new passengers are boarding from a different platform — someone who got a retargeting ad, someone who remembered your name from three weeks ago.

Where do your eCom shoppers hop on? 

Consideration happens on and off your store, and is often the station eating away most of your advertising budget.

1. On-site: Homepage scroll depth, collection pages, About page, blog, navigation clicks, popup engagement
2. Off-site: Email welcome series, retargeting ads, social content, reviews on third-party sites

I worked with a UK-based sleep products brand called Cosy London on exactly this. Amanda, the founder, had great traffic. People were spending an average of 8 minutes on her site, which is way above the industry standard of about 1 minute 22 seconds.

Her bounce rate was also under the average of 45%, proving that the right people were showing up. But the conversion rates were not adding up.

When we dug into the data, we found that people were hunting for products through the navigation because the homepage wasn’t highlighting them quickly enough.

And while presenting brand story, sustainability values, and lifestyle is important to any eCom business, you want to make sure you are not letting your navigation do the job your homepage should have been doing.

Because to get to the next stop, you need to put up signs to your collection and product pages.

Metrics to Watch:

• homepage conversion rate (aim for 1–3%)
• average scroll depth (benchmark: 70%)
• pages per session
• time on site (benchmark: 1 min 22 sec average)
• bounce rate (benchmark: 45%)
• email signup rate

Station 3: Purchase (The Conversion)

This is the one everyone fixates on, and fair enough — it’s where the money happens. But even the conversion turnstile has a lot of exits.

Some passengers tap and walk straight through. Others fumble with their card, get frustrated, and leave. Some don’t even realize they needed to tap — the process surprised them.

Things like:

• clunky navigation
• poor product discovery and merchandising
• bad product page journeys
• missing details (like shipping costs)
• slow checkouts

all can cause leaks.

But there are also people who have been at this station before. These are your retargeted shoppers, your email clickers, your repeat buyers, and they’re more likely to walk right through without hesitating.

So what to look for to know if this station is healthy?

Watch your add-to-cart rate (how many product page visitors actually add something) and the checkout completion rate (how many people who start checkout actually finish it).

You’re aiming for 8–10% of your product page visitors adding to cart.

You’re also watching your checkout completion rate — how many people who start checkout actually finish it. Aim for 60–70%.

Station 4: Post-Purchase

There is a tiny station on the way to retention that the vast majority of sellers forget about. It’s that stretch of track where your focus goes from selling to giving — or at least it should be.

Post-purchase is everything that happens between “Order Confirmed” and your retention marketing. And it’s the foundation that long-term loyalty is built on. True branding is built on the little things like:

• confirmation emails
• your shipping updates
• the insert that goes into your package
• product expectation vs reality
• after-sale care instructions they didn’t expect

And where are they boarding this station?

1. Off-site: Order confirmation email, shipping updates, delivery experience, unboxing, follow-up emails, review requests, returns process, your products.
2. On-site: Order tracking page, account dashboard, FAQ/support pages

And, the metrics you should be measuring here? 

Return rates are the obvious one. You want to make sure you’re at the very least not over the 15–30% industry average.

Support interactions from purchase to delivery are another one. The more questions and comments you are getting, the more likely your post-purchase flow has some leaky holes.

You also want to check your:

• review submission rates
• post-purchase email open rates

Station 5: Retention

They’re standing on the platform again, weeks later, looking at the route map. Do they get back on? Most stores assume this happens naturally — that if someone liked the product, they’ll come back.

But life happens, dude and if they are anything like me, they are going to forget. Even if I bought your candle, and loved it, there is a big chance I will buy a different one from a shop down the street when it runs out…

Unless, I remember you! 

Not just your product, but you, the brand — and the journey you took me on. This doesn’t happen by accident. My client  Zero Point Two, for instance, built their own brand around how their apparel makes their audience feel.

And you need to meet me where I am for this one:

• Off-site: Replenishment emails, “new product” announcements, loyalty programs, win-back campaigns, birthday/seasonal emails, SMS
• On-site: Account pages, wishlist, reorder prompts, personalized recommendations, subscription options

If you want to know if your station is running smoothly, then keep an eye on your:

• repeat purchase rate (benchmark: 20–30%)
• customer lifetime value
• time between first and second purchase
• email revenue from retention flows
• repurchase rate by product category

Station 6: Advocacy

What you probably know about this final stop is that it’s the VIP wing of your entire journey.

It’s when the passengers who loved the ride so much they start telling strangers on the platform to get on. They:

• leave reviews
• buy gifts
• tag you on Instagram
• send your link to a friend and say “you need this.”

And the best ones do it without any encouragement.

But, what you probably don’t know is equally important.

This station is the connecting line back to discovery and it’s the most important loop for long-term business growth. And while yes, it happens off-site:

• request emails
• referral programs
• UGC campaigns
• gifting options
• social sharing prompts
• ambassador programs

People can also get on at the advocacy station through your on-site:

• review widgets
• share buttons
• gift cards
• referral-a-friend pages

And how to tell if it’s performing fantastically?

Keep an eye on your:

• review rates (number of reviews vs number of customers)
• referral traffic
• UGC volume (tags, mentions, shares)
• gift card/gift purchase percentages
• net promoter scores (if you track it)

The Last Word: You Don’t Need to Fix Everything at Once

That’s the whole point of thinking in stations.

Find your leakiest station first. Is it:

1. Awareness (not enough people finding you)?
2. Consideration (people finding you but not engaging with products)?
3. Conversion (people engaging but not buying)?
4. Post-purchase (people buying but leaving disappointed)? 
5. Retention (customers not coming back)?
6. Advocacy (no one spreading the word)?

Every station has its own set of fixes. Some are quick: moving your bestsellers higher on the homepage, changing a CTA button color, adjusting your abandoned cart timing.

Some will take longer: building email flows, reworking product page layouts, creating a retention system.

But you can’t fix what you can’t see. So turn that funnel on its side and start thinking of it as a journey with specific stops along the way.

This is the first post in a series on eCom funnel optimization. Next up: how to actually diagnose where your funnel is leaking — with the specific metrics to check at each station.