Today’s customer journeys look less like funnels and more like works from Jackson Pollock; splashes of touchpoints across dozens of channels.
Digital transformation has “fractured consumer journeys into unpredictable, nonlinear patterns,” per Boston Consulting Group’s research, and AI is accelerating this complexity at breakneck speed.
Here’s the take: The real opportunity isn’t in controlling the journey. It’s about consistently and authentically showing up where your customers already are.
Customers don’t move in order – they move everywhere
The traditional marketing funnel assumes customers move predictably from awareness to consideration to purchase. It’s an assumption that makes presentations cleaner and attribution models simpler. But it’s also completely removed from reality.
MarTech’s analysis reveals that 73% of retail shoppers now use multiple channels throughout their journey. Not sequentially. Simultaneously.
Customers are researching on TikTok while traveling to your competitor’s store, checking G2 reviews while your salesperson is mid-pitch, and asking ChatGPT for recommendations while your landing page loads.
This behavior taps into a principle called “cognitive offloading.” When faced with complex or stepped decisions, we can fragment our research across multiple sources to minimize the load. Your customers aren’t being difficult; they’re being human.
The outcome? Increasingly diverse touchpoints for discovery and research.
The lines between channels are increasingly blurring. Social media, traditionally a brand channel, is increasingly vital to search.
46% of Gen Z and 35% of Millennials now prefer searching on social media. This is an important deviation from search engines as social search is push-based.
Algorithms surface relevant content before users even know they need it. It’s the difference between going to the library with a specific book in mind versus walking into a store and discovering a book you didn’t know existed.
The psychological principle at play here is “peripheral route processing.” When we’re in a browsing state (like scrolling TikTok), we’re more influenced by peripheral cues like social proof, aesthetics, and emotional appeal rather than systematic evaluation of facts.
Alongside this behavior is the fact that social media channels like LinkedIn or YouTube fuel and shape the AI search visibility of brands.
These reasons together explain why a 15-second TikTok can drive more purchase decisions than a 3,000-word research study. And why we need to rethink our siloed approach to channels.
Every touchpoint builds – or breaks – trust
The average customer might encounter your brand through a Reddit comment, a TikTok video, an AI chatbot response, and a retargeted ad all in one day.
MarTech’s research describes modern channels as “layered” rather than linear. Every layer…
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