We map this customer journey, or path-to-purchase, according to the discrete steps customers take in the process.
Understanding this holistic customer experience will help you to design a process that differentiates you from your competitors and builds loyalty with your customers.
We typically use a hybrid approach for journey mapping: in-depth ethnographic qualitative research/shop-alongs, followed by broader quantitative to project the path-to-purchase and determine what specific journeys might exist for various customer segments / persona types.