A purchase can begin long before a shopper reaches a product page. A broken appliance, a recommendation from a colleague or a change in household circumstances may start the search. People then move between conversations, searches, shops and periods of doing nothing, sometimes returning to an option they previously rejected.
The path to purchase describes those events and decisions. It helps researchers understand how a need becomes a purchase, including the alternatives considered and the circumstances that influence the outcome. Ipsos’ account of path-to-purchase research places the shopper’s decision across stages and touchpoints at the centre of the investigation.
Follow the decision across channels
Start with the trigger rather than assume that the first recorded website visit began the journey. Ask what the buyer was trying to resolve, what they already knew and who else became involved. Recent purchases can provide concrete accounts, while research conducted during an active search can reduce reliance on retrospective memory.
An illustrative purchase of home office equipment might include advice from an employer, a visit to a shop and a later online order from a different retailer. The checkout record captures only the end of that sequence. It cannot establish the influence of each earlier encounter.
Interviews can reconstruct the experience, and diary studies can capture it as it unfolds. Behavioural records add detail where observation is available and appropriately collected. Each source has gaps: memories simplify events, diaries require effort, and digital records rarely cover every device or offline interaction.
Keep different journeys visible
A routine repeat purchase may involve little active evaluation, while an unfamiliar or expensive decision can require extensive comparison. The person researching may also differ from the person paying or using the product. Avoid forcing those experiences into one smooth sequence merely because a diagram looks clearer that way.
Organise the evidence around meaningful situations or groups, explaining what is shared and where paths diverge. Customer journey mapping can communicate those findings, provided the map distinguishes observed evidence from assumptions. Include delays, abandoned searches and decisions not to buy where they help explain the market.
Use the account to identify a practical response
The research might reveal a missing explanation, a comparison people struggle to make or a handover that loses important information. These findings give the team specific questions to investigate and changes to test.
A path-to-purchase study does not automatically assign causal credit to each marketing channel. Knowing that someone encountered an advertisement before buying is different from knowing whether it changed the decision. Preserve that distinction while using the broader account to understand where the buying experience could be more helpful, coherent and trustworthy.