The èƵ Maturity Scale
The proven journey to find value others overlook and get started with intent.
We have become stuck, not only in an entrenched way of thinking, but with slowing growth and few remaining levers to pull.
It’s an approach that has taken many mature brands about as far as it can. Yet, the demand for growth isn’t going away. It never will.
Traditionally, this has left leaders and teams with a limited number of options. Assuming new products and markets are off the table, we have little choice but to either continue trying to raise conversion rate across all visitors or get more visitors in the first place.
The thing is, we have optimised our default pages and experiences to the point where squeezing any extra juice is a diminishing return.
And while acquiring new visitors, from social to email, is in many ways getting easier and more targeted, it’s also getting noisier and costlier.
There will always be generic growth to find and optimisations to make. But after hitting a certain level of maturity or performance, every brand hits a plateau. Growth is no longer predictable. No longer sustainable.
This is why we believe ecommerce doesn’t just need another growth hack. It needs a new perspective of the people it’s selling to. It needs to focus more on stages, not pages. It needs intent.
Many people in ecommerce agree with us too. Time and time we see nodding faces in response to the sentiments above.
We’ve also backed up the problem with research. Surveying 2,000 online shoppers, as well as analysing 100 ecommerce experiences and 669 million ecommerce events, to highlight The èƵ Gap.
We’ve even proven targeting real-time intent can find new growth. Across multiple use cases. You can see this in our customer stories from the likes of Bensons For Beds, On The Beach and Seasalt Cornwall.
But, as with all new approaches, change can be daunting. Moving from generically optimising, measuring on website-first metrics such as conversion rate, towards, well, something more human feels like a big step.
The right step. But a big one nevertheless.
This is why we’ve created The èƵ Maturity Scale.
After modelling over 10 billion events and running more than 200 successful experiments for brands from many verticals, we‘ve proven a five-level stepped program.
Without èƵ
Static rules and page-first templates
Same generic experiences for everyone
Focus on funnel metrics with no context
Site, CRM and ads operate in isolation
Plateauing performance
VS
With èƵ
Segment visitors by intent in real time
Trigger tactics at most impactful moments
New intent stage and signal metrics added
Offsite tools powered by session summaries
Quick growth found with better timing
VS
Orchestrated by èƵ
èƵ insights shape experiences & strategy
Tactics adapt to visitor intent & affinities
Levers control message strength & cadence
Onsite & offsite journeys sequenced together
Growth scales with smarter interventions
The èƵ Maturity Levels
Not just by edging up conversion rate with page-first, catch-all CRO.
Not just by taking a more-is-more approach to customer acquisition.
But by understanding and responding to visitor intent.
This maturity scale is designed to be a roadmap to adopting and scaling this approach. A guide on how to move from the website-first way of today, to a visitor-first tomorrow.
At this point we should flag that, yes, we have built what we believe to be the best product to help ecommerce brands use intent at scale. So while this maturity scale is written in line with our framework and customers, it is intended to be a general guide, not a sales pitch.
So even if you want to apply intent through other means (not that we think their is an easier, better option for most brands…but we’ll stop there) the levels and inspiration should be helpful to you.
Let’s get into it.
Understanding intent
Most ecommerce reporting treats every visitor the same. Conversion rates are averaged. Funnels are page-based. Segmentation depends on static attributes like device, channel, or campaign source.
This makes optimisation look simple. But it creates a false sense of certainty.
Because none of these signals tell you how someone is thinking. They don’t tell you how close a visitor is to buying, what kind of help they need, or how their journey is evolving.
èƵ does.
At this level, brands start to leave page-first thinking behind. Instead of designing for templates and measuring drop-off between steps, you begin to map what’s really happening: the behaviours, mindsets and signals that define a visitor’s journey in real time.
It’s the shift from guessing based on averages, to understanding based on context.
Understanding intent means seeing your traffic as a dynamic mix of motivations, not an aggregated mass.
It reveals the real composition of your audience. You can see how many visitors are just browsing. How many are considering products. How many are ready to buy. And how they behave differently, even when landing on the same page.
This isn’t just about a new set of metrics or segments. It’s about a new perspective.
When you understand what stage someone is in, and how that maps to their behaviour, you stop treating every interaction like a sales opportunity. You start responding appropriately.
And you start to uncover the tension most brands overlook: that optimising for averages often creates experiences that work for no one.
At this stage, teams begin to challenge traditional assumptions. Page views and drop-offs become less important than what’s happening *within* the session.
You move away from fixed templates and funnel logic, and towards a model that reflects how people actually buy, in stages, not pages. You learn to distinguish between a visit to a product page and genuine evaluation. Between a checkout visit and true commitment.
The first unlock here isn’t personalisation. It’s understanding.
The goal is to build literacy: around the real behaviour of your visitors, the stages they move through, and the friction they experience.
At this stage, ecommerce teams typically begin to:
Work with new, consistent intent datapoints (such as our proven èƵ Framework)
Segment visitors by intent in real time
Understand the mindset and composition of their traffic based on the intent of the visitors
Reframe internal questions from “What’s the bounce rate?” to “What’s the intent stage of this audience?”
This sets the foundation for acting on intent in future stages, but the value of Level 1 is clarity. It’s where you start seeing the gap between how you design and how people buy.
This isn’t a tactical step. It’s a strategic one.
Most brands never stop to rethink the basics, or learned behaviour. Like how they analyse performance, or how they segment visitors. That’s why this stage stands out.
By building a shared language around intent, your team becomes better equipped to question existing metrics, advocate for more relevant experiences, and contribute to stronger, more sustainable growth strategies.
This is the level where brands stop only thinking in pages, and start thinking in stages too.
Challenge the default metrics. Start by questioning whether conversion rate and bounce rate alone are telling the whole story.
Ask better questions. In your next optimisation meeting, replace “What’s the drop-off?” with “What’s the visitor’s intent at this stage?”
Surface new human context. Use intent data to understand how many visitors are actually in-market, and which aren’t, even when they land on the same page.
Your team talks in stages, not just pages. You’re referencing visitor mindset in meetings, not just traffic source or device.
You’re challenging default metrics. Conversion rate isn’t the only KPI in the room, intent is part of the conversation.
You’re using intent to ask better questions. “Why did this bounce?” becomes “Was this visitor ever likely to convert?”
At this stage we provide the foundation. Our èƵ Framework (Stages, Signals, Trends, Affinities) and session-level summaries help teams see their traffic through an intent-first lens. Brands typically start by using our analytics integrations and visualisations to reframe how they understand and talk about their visitors.
Optimising experiences
By this point, you understand what intent looks like. You’ve stopped lumping all your visitors into a single view, and you’ve started to see how real buying behaviour differs across your audience.
Now it’s time to act on it.
This level is all about applying what you’ve learned to what you’re already doing. Not launching new features or reinventing the wheel, just improving the timing, targeting and appropriateness of your existing tactics. Whether it’s a discount, a sign-up form, a product banner or a CRM flow, the question becomes:
“When does it make the most sense for the visitor to see this tactic?”
At this stage, brands begin to prove that being appropriate isn’t just better for experience. It’s better for performance.
This is where the commercial case for intent becomes real.
Until now, most experiences are built from a page-first mindset. Pop-ups appear after 30 seconds. Discounts show up on landing. Messaging is broad, and triggered by site events instead of customer mindset.
But once you understand how people move through intent stages, from low-intent browsing to high-intent conversion, you gain a new level of control. You stop triggering features based on surface behaviour. You start aligning them with real buyer readiness.
The result? Fewer wasted impressions. Better returns. Less noise. More trust.
And, critically, more proof that acting on intent outperforms guesswork.
You’re not launching new features. You’re making your existing ones smarter.
That means campaigns like discounts, social proof, overlays or email capture, the same tactics most ecommerce teams use, are now deployed based on when they make the most impact.
You’re increasing relevance, without reinventing anything.
- Social proof now reassures high-intent shoppers, instead of confusing low-intent ones
- Discounts better protect margin by only triggering when needed
- Email capture appears in response to visitor signals, not static triggers
- CRM campaigns are triggered based on real-time session signals, not just cart status
Your team learns that less can be more, when experiences are aligned to what each visitor actually needs.
At this level, ecommerce teams typically begin to:
Analyse existing features by intent: What happens when a discount shows up for low vs high intent visitors?
Trigger tactics more intelligently: Delivering experiences when they have most impact based on visitor needs (we use our own to work this out)
Retarget more precisely: Adding session summaries onto customer profiles, to improve browse/cart abandonment and remarketing efforts
Segment by intent as standard: Every campaign is evaluated through an intent lens, not just aggregate conversion rate
This is where intent becomes a lens for all optimisation. And where the first big wins begin.
This level isn’t about creativity. It’s about control.
Most brands already have a playbook of tactics, discounts, banners, overlays and CRM flows. But few of those tactics are triggered with real context. That means missed opportunities, wasted margin, and one-size-fits-all experiences.
At Level 2, you make those tools work harder. You bring precision to your personalisation. And you finally have the data to back up your instincts.
This is the level where brands stop launching features on autopilot and start making them count.
Analyse what’s live: Pick one feature, like an overlay or email pop-up, and look at how it performs across different intent stages
Revisit old A/B tests: Break down historic results by intent to spot missed insights or false negatives
Start with one use case: Use our playbooks to pick a high-impact use case and run your first segmented test
Balance performance with precision: Don’t just measure success by conversion rate, add in uplift among the right audience
Use CRM Session Summaries: Tailor follow-ups not just by product or page, but by where someone is in their purchase journey
Your team is actively using intent data to inform campaign setup
You’ve proven clear gains, like higher conversion or margin protection, from better-timed tactics
You’re no longer guessing at who to target, as segmentation is built around real behaviour
You’re asking deeper questions like:
“How could this feature adapt based on mindset?”
“What does this segment need next?”
“How could we go beyond overlays and into content or CRM?”
You’re identifying mismatches, where experiences don’t match the visitor’s stage, and you’re starting to act on that
Our product makes your existing tactics smarter. Using our campaign manager and integrations, teams connect tactics like overlays, discounts or emails to real-time visitor signals. This ensures they trigger at the right moment, protecting margin and proving ROI without heavy rebuilds.
Surfacing Insights
Prior to this level, you’ve proven that intent works. You’ve used it to time and target individual experiences more effectively, and seen the commercial impact.
Now it’s time to go deeper.
Level 3 is where brands stop looking at campaigns in isolation and start analysing their site through the lens of real-time intent. Not just *what happened*, but *why*. Not just what to fix, but what to build next. Based on what your visitors really need.
This is the level where you turn scattered wins into a scalable strategy.
Most ecommerce analysis is page-based. You spot high bounce rates, optimise templates, and test against average CVR. But that only shows what visitors did, not what they were thinking, or how close they were to converting.
This limits insight. It hides friction. And it can lead to solving the wrong problem.
Surfacing insights with intent means shifting from site structure to visitor psychology. You begin to analyse journeys using real-time Signals, Stages and Trends. You identify patterns, like struggle or hesitation, that cut across pages and segments.
And you start to see where your experience is mismatched to how people really buy.
This isn’t just analysis. It’s insight generation.
It’s the difference between watching traffic, and *understanding demand*.
This stage marks the shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive opportunity-spotting.
You are no longer asking “Why is bounce rate high here?” You are asking:
“What intent stage is this visitor in?”
“What intent signals or trends are showing up?”
“What direction is behaviour trending in?”
You move beyond default, website-first KPIs, and start building hypotheses tied to real user behaviour. For example:
High abandonment on a category page may reveal a lack of product confidence, not interest.
Low CRM engagement may reflect a mismatch in timing, not copy.
Declining conversion in a key segment might be due to a change in purchase stage mix, not a UX issue.
These insights let you shape more relevant hypotheses, and ultimately, more strategic experiences.
Use èƵ data (like our èƵ Framework) to explore site performance by stage, signal and trend
Zoom in on specific journeys (e.g. homepage → PDP, or social → basket) and map friction points
Reframe internal conversations: from “this page is underperforming” to “this stage is underserved”
Run workshops that align teams around visitor behaviours, not traffic numbers
Uncover non-obvious insights, like when and why certain segments stall, or how product affinity shapes readiness
This is the first level where you stop optimising features and start shaping strategy.
Rather than reacting to problems, you build a pipeline of ideas. Your site becomes a landscape of behavioural signals, not static pages. And your team becomes more confident spotting gaps, building cases, and pushing for smarter change.
This is also the point where new, intent-first experiences start to take shape because you finally have the insight to justify them.
This is the level where brands stop reacting to aggregated things like averaged bounce rate and start spotting real overlooked value.
Pick a key objective like a high-traffic category or page type, and analyse stage composition and signal trends
Use insight to shape discussion: Share one èƵ-led finding per team meeting to build culture and fluency
Run a workshop to map stages alongside pages, and surface mismatch or missed moments
Introduce “intent questions” into reporting, such as “What signals are trending in this journey?”
You’re building hypotheses that are stage- and signal-aware, not just page-based
Your team is comfortable exploring site performance through the èƵ Framework
You’re linking patterns in behaviour to commercial outcomes, and starting to test ideas based on those links
You’re already thinking “what could we create based on this?” Not just “what could we tweak?”
Our platform surfaces friction and opportunity through your intent data and your level 2 campaign activity. Session summaries and reporting dashboards help teams move beyond page-level KPIs, so they can uncover patterns and generate stage- and signal-based hypotheses that feed future optimisation.
Directing campaigns
At this stage, you’ve stopped treating features as isolated tests. Now you’re thinking in terms of *moments*. What experience should someone get, at what time, with what message?
Level 4 is where brands begin designing intent-first journeys. Not just adjusting when experiences are delivered, but how they behave and what they say based on where a visitor is in their decision-making process.
You’re no longer optimising around what you have. You’re building what’s missing.
Most brands stop at optimising existing catch-all features and tactics. Timing a pop-up. Reworking a CTA. Switching off a discount.
Level 4 is where intent-based experiences go up a notch. Using insight from Level 3, you start building:
- In-session content that adapts in real time
- CRM flows shaped by behavioural signals
- Retargeting journeys that reflect the last known stage
This isn’t just about showing something different. It’s about designing experiences that wouldn’t be possible without intent.
Now, you’re asking:
- What’s the right message for this moment?
- How should it evolve if intent shifts?
- How do we turn one-off features into cohesive, adaptive flows?
Level 4 unlocks more relevant journeys, and better results, without relying on resource-heavy rebuilds. You’re scaling precision, without a major increase in effort.
Having built confidence using intent to optimise existing features, teams now create new experiences based on the visitor’s intent. These replace or work with your current templates and flows (no rebuild required).
From dynamic overlays and in‑page content to sequenced CRM flows and personalised remarketing, you are thinking beyond features towards adaptive, intent‑first journeys.
In-session:
You design adaptive overlays and in-page content that flex based on real-time signals
You shift from “show/hide” logic to sequenced, dynamic campaigns
You test not just if something works, but for who, when, and why they work
Segment by intent as standard: Every campaign is evaluated through an intent lens, not just aggregate conversion rate
Post-visit:
You create new CRM flows triggered by stage, affinity or signal patterns-
You personalise remarketing creative, not just segments
You stop thinking “channel-first” and start thinking “context-first”
- Use hypotheses from Level 3 to launch new experiences, not just iterate
- Redesign templates and campaigns to respond to real-time signals (not segments alone)
- Move beyond overlays: test homepage layouts, messaging, and content that adapts with intent
- Personalise flows at the moment of re-entry not just at send
- Use timing and content together to increase conversion without relying on blanket discounts
- Introduce new journey types: multi-step CRM series, sequential remarketing etc.
This is the leap from iteration to invention.
Your team stops asking “how can we improve this feature?”
They start asking “what’s the experience this visitor actually needs, and how can we deliver it?”
Suddenly, personalisation isn’t a tactic. It’s a mindset.
And intent isn’t just an insight. It’s the logic that shapes the journey.
This is the level where brands stop tweaking, and start creating.
- Launch a new in-session experience based on real insight, not a hunch
- Rebuild one CRM journey using intent signals instead of static rules
- Test variations of content based on stage or affinity, not just placement or timing
- Share results internally, linking every outcome to the intent insight behind it
You’ve launched at least one new experience from scratch, based on intent
You’ve tested different delivery types (overlay, in-page, CRM, retargeting) for a shared objective
Your templates are no longer fixed, they evolve based on signal and stage
“èƵ-first” thinking shows up outside your team, in trading, CRM, media or UX conversations
You’re already mapping out the full journey, not just its individual parts
Our campaign manager and integrations give you everything you need to deliver intent-first experiences. Using sequencing and dynamic content, our customers design new campaigns that evolve as intent shifts. Whether in-session overlays or CRM flows, our tools make it possible to test, learn and create intent-based journeys without complex engineering work.
Orchestrating journeys
While we believe no eCommerce brand is yet to reach this point, whether through our tool or other means, we feel the full potential of intent lies in real-time orchestration.
You’ve proven connecting your tactics to intent can drive value. You’ve built adaptive experiences, shaped by real signals. But in Level 5, something changes.
This is where intent becomes more than a layer, it becomes the logic. Not just a tool for optimisation, but the foundation of how journeys are designed, delivered and scaled.
Once you hit level 5, you stop thinking in campaigns. You start thinking in systems.
Most brands optimise in parts. They A/B test. They retarget. They send CRM flows.
But these are fragments, disconnected by team, channel, and logic.
Level 5 is where intent begins to unify it all. So you go from building experiences to something more like orchestrating entire journeys.
- Responsive in-page content that evolves over time
- CRM flows triggered by actual stage shifts
- Retargeting aligned with real behaviour, not rules
Everything moves with the visitor, because experiences (and therefore, their journeys) are no longer static. They’re responsive systems powered by context.
This is the point where intent becomes more than an option, or a signal. It starts to become central to all things ecommerce.
The biggest shift is coordination. You stop building experiences in isolation and start creating connected paths.
That means:
Sequencing touchpoints around shared objectives
Designing content and logic that flex in real-time
Adapting the experience, not just personalising the message
Scaling without adding complexity, using automation and generative AI
You’re not thinking “what feature should we show here?” You’re thinking: “Where is this person in their journey, and what’s the best next step for them?”
Map full journeys using intent stages, signals, and trends, across in-session and post-visit
Design coordinated sequences of content: overlay → CRM → retargeting
Use orchestration logic, not just timing logic
Dial experiences up or down based on performance or margin protection goals
Use intent as shared language across teams: product, CRM, UX, brand, performance
This is the move from designing features to shaping journeys.
Your team doesn’t just launch campaigns. It builds systems that respond to context, adapt across time, and scale without more resource.
èƵ becomes the connective tissue between visitor mindset, experience delivery and commercial objectives
This is the level where brands stop optimising and launching with a singular focus, but practically let intent itself do the orchestrating.
Map one full journey using real-time intent data, across overlays, CRM, retargeting and on-site content
Create a blueprint: align stages, signals, objectives and outcomes. This becomes your orchestration canvas
Shift your language internally: use intent to brief new ideas, prioritise features, and analyse performance
Sequence a campaign across in-session and post-visit touchpoints to match one key objective
Set orchestration KPIs, so you track not just touchpoint metrics, but journey-level progression and outcome
You’ve connected in-session and post-visit experiences into full journeys
You’ve mapped key journeys around shared business objectives using intent
Teams across the business use intent as a core concept, not just a feature
Your templates, flows and features adapt in real time, based on live behaviour
èƵ is seen not just as an option, but the engine of your ecommerce strategy
While we’re yet to know the true power here, we believe our product will see intent become the logic across your ecosystem. Our orchestration capabilities will connect in-session, CRM and retargeting into cohesive journeys. With automation and generative AI, we expect brands to be able to scale precision while keeping orchestration manageable.
How progression works
The èƵ Maturity Scale isn’t intended to be a checklist.
Some brands progress quickly. Others spend longer in certain stages, testing, learning, and proving ROI. That’s expected.
What matters isn’t how fast you move, but how deeply you adopt the mindset.
The stages also aren’t rigid. Early levels often overlap. You may experiment with Level 3-4 thinking while still building Level 2 foundations. You may even decide to stay at level 2 for the foreseeable.
That’s the strength of the maturity scale: it flexes to where you are, and where your growth needs to come from next.
This is how you move from diminishing, catch-all optimisation toward sustainable, contextual growth.
From treating visitors as traffic to sell to, to treating them as people to support.
Wherever you are today, this maturity scale helps you move forward. With clarity, confidence and commercial impact.
If you’ve read this far, you’re already thinking deeper about intent than many in the industry. But we’re willing to bet (try us) that it won’t be this way for too long.
You’ve seen how innovative brands move from generic journeys to contextual growth, by using real-time intent to shape how they understand, respond to and convert visitors.
Each level in this model reflects a shift. From proxies to predictions. From averages to individuals. From pages to stages. From features to journeys. From isolated wins to orchestrated growth.
And right now, that shift matters more than ever. Traffic is expensive. Loyalty is fragile. Teams are stretched. The brands that win next won’t do it by squeezing 0.1% out of tired templates. They’ll do it by seeing what others don’t, and responding in real time.
If that’s where you want to go next, book a demo to see how Made With èƵ helps ecommerce brands unlock the full value of real-time intent.