How well do you know your customers? You may be convinced that you know a lot about them, but can you be more firm in your understanding of why they do what they do? This article explores customer buying patterns and the impact they can have on your business. We’ll look at the factors that influence buying behavior, explain several common buying patterns, and offer some tips on how best to turn them to your advantage.
What factors influence purchasing behavior?
Whether you are a solo creative Make money on Instagram or an enterprise sales executive leading a multinational team, you need to understand whatsapp and digital marketing why buyers behave the way they do.
While the reasons for consumer behavior can be complex, there are some key factors that can help identify them:
Economic Environment
Let’s start with the most important factor: the economic climate. It’s true that a rising tide lifts all boats. But it’s also true that when the tide goes out, many of us can’t afford to sail.
Consumers inevitably adjust their behavior based on how wealthy they are. When times are good, more buyers may make impulse purchases on a regular basis. When a downturn hits, more planning goes into each.
Social Impact
Even though you’re looking for general patterns, it’s useful to remember that every buyer is unique. All consumers are influenced by a range of social factors, including demographics like age and location, lifestyle choices like eating habits, and less tangible but still fundamental factors like moral values. No two people are exactly alike. Even so, identifying subgroups this will allow the original of consumers with similar buying patterns can help develop targeting strategies.
But there is a caveat here. While you will deal with averages to some extent, never forget that you may miss sales opportunities if you look in the wrong direction. For example, there is no reason why a retired senior shouldn’t take a data engineering certification course, or why a high school student shouldn’t buy luxury watches.
Social factors can be a helpful guide, but you should never rely on them 100%. Consumers can and will surprise you.
Consumer Psychology
A lot has been written about how to harness the power of consumer psychology. From strategically placing products in grocery stores to timing discounts on e-commerce sites, this is a well-trodden path.
Purchasing patterns are determined by factors such as value or quality perception and the convenience of the purchase choice. One example is the rise of contactless payments via bank cards and smartphone apps. According to Grand View Research, the total amount of contactless payments in the United States is expected to grow an average of 19% per year between 2020 and 2030.
Types of Customer Buying Patterns
Consumer buying patterns tend to fall into a few different broad categories. These depend on basic factors, including purchase volume and purchase quick signs frequency. But it can also be instructive to look at this from the perspective of consumer motivations.
Habitual
When people habitually purchase specific products, they often demonstrate brand loyalty, consciously or unconsciously, not only in everyday shopping decisions but also in less frequent purchase decisions.
When you go to the store to buy groceries, you probably don’t think about what brand or type of pasta you’re going to buy. If you typically put a package of Brand X whole-wheat fusilli into your cart, chances are you’ll do the same next week. Humans are creatures of habit. We don’t like to spend too long making small decisions.