Conversion Funnel

A conversion funnel maps the path visitors follow toward a goal — for example, landing page → product page → cart → checkout → confirmation. It's called a funnel because volume typically shrinks at each step: not everyone who views a product adds it to cart, and not everyone who adds to cart completes checkout. Mapping this path is the starting point for funnel analysis and for deciding where to prioritize experiments.

CRO teams use funnels to identify the highest-leverage drop-off points. A 5% improvement at a step with heavy traffic loss (like cart-to-checkout) usually matters more than the same improvement at a step most users already pass through easily. Funnels also clarify the difference between a macro-conversion (the final goal) and micro-conversions (intermediate steps worth optimizing on their own).

A practical example: an e-commerce team notices 70% of users who view a product never add it to cart, but 90% of those who do add-to-cart complete checkout. That tells them to focus experimentation effort on the product page and add-to-cart button, not on checkout, even though checkout 'feels' like the more critical step.