Throughout the day, we’re constantly switching between devices. From mobile to desktop to tablet, the journey includes multiple vehicles. In fact, 90% of connected customers move between screens during their purchase pathway for everyday activities.

This presents a trifecta problem for marketers in eventually converting people to customers: how to both track and identify these touch points – and then how best to engage people from device to device.

Some Surprising Stats

• 70% of people own of 3 or more devices
• 98% of people go online at least once a day, 85% more than once a day
• 65% of smartphone users go online several times a day
• 83% of retail customers in the U.S. research products online; 67% of the 83% end up purchasing offline

This evolved purchase path gives marketers a great opportunity to target customers at specific touch points or intent-filled moments. The challenge is identifying these touch points and using relevant communication to create leads.

The solution seems to be omnichannel digital analytics, which takes place over a 4-step journey:

Identification: The first step is identifying the product. This is where the customer first discovers the product in which they’re interested for the first time. 21% of consumers use on-the-go devices in this stage, which includes tablets and mobile.

Exploration: The second step is finding alternate options in place of the initial product identified. 41% use tablets or mobile devices during this stage.

Decision: The third step is the purchase decision is made in the customer’s mind. Again, 41% of consumers are using on-the-go devices during this stage.

Purchasing: The journey culminates at purchase. Most people switch over to a desktop computer or laptop during this stage. 51% of these device switchers have indicated that they switched to a device where they have a better user experience.

Knowing these steps gives marketers a better idea of how to analyze consumer behavior and where to reach them at the most relevant touch points.

Analyzing the Path

So how can your business analyze the multi-device purchase path? There are currently two concepts that experts are using to track these conversions.

Predictive Modeling: A technique where analysts gather data points on multiple sets of parameters, then have models extract practical insights out of the same. This involves huge data of each customer that accesses various interfaces on multiple devices and the activity log of each customer. All of this data will then be combined to create a hypothesis of successful KPI’s. This involves a high level of market knowledge for accurate results.

Login-Based Analytics: This is a more specific tactic, where the sign on behavior of the customer is tracked across multiple devices. This can only really work for bigger players like Google or Facebook, but brands have the ability to get sign-ups through these big names. This is why you often see “Sign-Up with Facebook” on a lot of different platforms.

Source: To The New Digital (August 2015): The Science Behind Cross Device Conversion