Customer Shopping Behaviour

Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the actions taken (both on and offline) by consumers before buying a product or service. This process may include consulting search engines, engaging with social media posts, or a variety of other actions. It is valuable for businesses to understand this process because it helps businesses better tailor their marketing initiatives to the marketing efforts that have successfully influenced consumers to buy in the past.

A variety of factors go into the consumer buyer behavior process, but here we offer just a few. Taken separately, they may not result in a purchase. When put together in any number of combinations, the likelihood increases that someone will connect with a brand and make a purchase. Four factors influencing consumer buying behavior are:

• Cultural Factors: Culture is not always defined by a person’s nationality. It can also be defined by their associations, their religious beliefs or even their location.
• Social Factors: Elements in a person’s environment that impact the way they see products.
• Personal Factors: These may include someone’s age, marital status, budget, personal beliefs, values, and morals.
• Psychological Factors: A person’s state of mind when they are approached with a product will often determine how they feel not only about the item itself but the brand as a whole.

Studying consumer behavior is important because this way marketers can understand what influences consumers’ buying decisions. By understanding how consumers decide on a product they can fill in the gap in the market and identify the products that are needed and the products that are obsolete. Studying consumer behaviour also helps marketers decide how to present their products in a way that generates maximum impact on consumers. Understanding consumer buying behaviour is the key secret to reaching and engaging your clients, and convert them to purchase from you.

A consumer behavior analysis should reveal:

• What consumers think and how they feel about various alternatives (brands, products, etc.);
• What influences consumers to choose between various options;
• Consumers’ behavior while researching and shopping;
• How consumers’ environment (friends, family, media, etc.) influences their behavior.

Consumer behavior is often influenced by different factors. Marketers should study consumer purchase patterns and figure out buyer trends. In most cases, brands influence consumer behavior only with the things they can control; like how IKEA seems to compel you to spend more than what you intended to every time you walk into the store.

Factors affects consumer behavior

Many things can affect consumer behavior, but the most frequent factors influencing consumer behavior are:

1. Marketing campaigns

Marketing campaigns influence purchasing decisions a lot. If done right and regularly, with the right marketing message, they can even persuade consumers to change brands or opt for more expensive alternatives. Marketing campaigns can even be used as reminders for products/services that need to be bought regularly but are not necessarily on customers’ top of mind (like insurance for example). A good marketing message can influence impulse purchases.

2. Economic conditions

For expensive products especially (like houses or cars) economic conditions play a big part. A positive economic environment is known to make consumers more confident and willing to indulge in purchases irrespective of their personal financial liabilities. Consumers make decisions in a longer time period for expensive purchases and the buying process can be influenced by more personal factors at the same time.

3. Personal preferences

Consumer behavior can also be influenced by personal factors, likes, dislikes, priorities, morals, and values. In industries like fashion or food personal opinions are especially powerful. Advertisement can, of course, help but at the end of the day consumers’ choices are greatly influenced by their preferences. If you’re vegan, it doesn’t matter how many burger joint ads you see, you’re probably not gonna start eating meat because of that.

4. Group influence

Peer pressure also influences consumer behavior. What our family members, classmates, immediate relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances think or do can play a significant role in our decisions. Social psychology impacts consumer behaviour. Choosing fast food over home-cooked meals, for example, is just one of such situations. Education levels and social factors can have an impact.

Four types of Buyers

1. The Analytical Buyer

Motivated by logic and information, this buyer will look at all the data on competing brands and products before making an informed decision.

2. The Amiable Buyer

Warm and friendly, this buyer just wants everyone to be happy. That is why they are often paralyzed by big decisions when there is the perception of a win/lose outcome.

3. The Driver Buyer

Drivers are most concerned with how others view them and whether they follow. The trendsetters, Drivers are most concerned with their appearance rather than the relationships that are formed during a transaction.

4. The Expressive Buyer

Relationships are key to the Expressive Buyer. They cannot stand feeling isolated or ignored during a transaction. Instead, they want to feel like your most important asset.

It’s hard to distill something as complex as consumer buying behavior into four neat and tidy categories. Most people will find they are a combination of these types of consumer buying behavior.