TL;DR
The funnel tool allows website owners to check how many visitors reach a specific page of their website by following a precisely defined process. It also allows them to determine how many visitors drop off at each level of this defined process and to find out potential reasons for this.
This is an extremely useful module. It makes it way easier to check whether visitors to the website are actually following the paths the website operator wants them to follow and/or whether they are reaching an important target page (e.g. a page with important content or the completion of a purchase).
This feature is essential for capturing conversions, which is why the module can also be called a conversion funnel.
How Funnels work
You define - in a simple way - a certain sequence of pages that reflect a process that visitors of your website should follow to get to what you think is important.
Let’s assume you want visitors to your website to buy a product. This is what your funnel could look like: Home → Product overview page → Product detail page → Add to shopping cart → Buy item → Purchase.
After you have set up a funnel for this process and when enough data (number of visitors) has been collected, you can see how many of your visitors have left the process at each of the above steps or have completed all steps. In this way, you can analyze where your visitors left your critical website processes, and in turn, find ways to improve your user interface. You should then be able to achieve higher conversion rates and total visitor numbers that your target processes are performing.
