How Understanding Customer Behavior Will Help You Succeed on Amazon

No matter what industry you’re in, one of the main marketing focus areas is customer behavior because customers are the driving force of any company’s success. Therefore, to serve their demands and generate income, businesses must understand their customers’ behaviours. However, customer behavior goes beyond just desires and expectations; it also takes into account their actions and the motivations behind those actions.

This article will explore customer behavior patterns, their significance, and factors that can affect them.

Defining Customer Behavior

Customer behavior, also referred to as consumer behavior, is the study of how customers select, consume, and drop products and services. The process of studying these behaviors includes observing and recording customers’ thoughts, emotions, and actions taken during the customer journey.

The study of consumer behavior examines how consumers select items, their purchasing patterns, why they avoid particular products, and how they engage with a product or service. Therefore, this area of study goes beyond simply considering what customers want and don’t want.

The Key Aspects that Customer Behavior Investigates

As mentioned above, customer behavior goes beyond the emotions sparked and actions taken during the customer journey. Here are some other factors that affect consumer behavior:

  1. Purchasing patterns, including locations, frequency, and devices used;
  2. Emerging trends and background factors that affect whether or not customers make purchases;
  3. Customer perceptions of alternative products or services, sometimes referred to as dupes;
  4. Preferred ways of shopping, such as big-box stores against mom-and-pop shops, in-store versus online, or both, etc.
  5. How customers search for companies;
  6. Customers’ reasoning for choosing certain options over others;
  7. How consumers are affected by their surroundings, including their friends, the media, culture, and other members of the target market;
  8. How marketing campaigns affect or have an impact on consumers’ behavior.

The Importance of Examining Customer Behavior

Examining consumer behavior is extremely important because it paints a clear portrait of the people who make up the customer base, enabling businesses to market and engage with them properly. By better understanding customer behaviors, brands can adjust and improve their marketing strategies, offers, promotions, customer service, and more. Although studying consumer behaviour may be tedious, the bottom line is that conducting this research makes it possible for brands to influence customers more effectively in the long run.

Additionally, by studying consumer behavior, marketing teams can promote their products more persuasively and with greater impact. Exposing consumers to marketing and advertising messages can encourage them to make purchases more regularly the more frequently they interact with a brand. In this way, interacting with a business, whether through viewing its content or browsing its offers, imprints it in customers’ minds, which is important for brand awareness.

In conclusion, studying consumer behavior helps companies better understand their clientele so they can adjust their marketing strategies and win over long-term clients.

Customer Behavior Patterns

It’s critical to recognize the patterns that shape consumer behavior. Buying habits should not be mistaken with buying patterns because they refer to tendencies that could be spontaneous, whereas patterns show predictable outcomes.

Here are the four customer behavior patterns:

  1. Items purchased
    Shopping carts are a good source of information for businesses, as they show what and how much a customer purchases. The typical pattern is that shoppers buy necessities more frequently and in larger quantities, while they purchase luxury goods less regularly and in smaller quantities.
  2. Place of purchase
    Even when all of the things a customer wants are available at just one store, they typically shop at several different ones. This mostly depends on how easily they can access other stores. Shoppers are likely to buy products from several locations when they are not limited to just one shop due to transportation constraints. Businesses should examine places of purchase patterns since they reveal their customers’ preferences and give marketers insight into the places their clients visit.
  3. Method of purchase
    The method that a customer uses to buy products reveals the type of customer they are. This is because there are numerous ways to make purchases, each of which is connected to a different customer journey. Businesses with this kind of knowledge about behavior patterns can better identify solutions to encourage repeat and frequent customer purchases.
  4. Frequency and timing of purchase
    Customers make purchases at various intervals and rates. Businesses can better serve their customers by understanding the timing and frequency of their purchases. Studying these ideas will help companies adapt to seasonal changes as well as regional (and international) time differences.

Factors That Affect Customer Behavior

A variety of factors can influence customers’ actions. Therefore, businesses should become familiar with these customer behavior variables since they all, in one way or another, have an impact on consumer behavior and behavior patterns.

Businesses will be able to comprehend client behavior more clearly when they examine it in light of these factors:

  1. The economy;
  2. Marketing campaigns;
  3. Personality traits;
  4. Personal preferences;
  5. Social trends.

How Market Research Helps Businesses Understand Customer Behavior

By conducting market research, businesses get a better understanding of all the key aspects of their consumers’ behavior, which in turn helps them improve their marketing strategies and campaigns.

There are many different types of research that fall under the umbrella of market research, including both primary and secondary research, as well as both quantitative and qualitative studies. To better understand their customers’ behaviors, all businesses should consult primary sources, namely polls or surveys.

Poll and surveys help researchers determine where their target market is in relation to all the variables and patterns of consumer behavior. Additionally, they allow brands to ask specific questions on all patterns, including buying habits, locations of purchases, frequency, etc.

Improving Business Goals and Scaling by Understanding Your Target Market (Conclusion)

As this article has demonstrated, market research, particularly survey research, is extremely helpful for companies to better understand how their customers shop, which behavioral patterns they follow, and how to use this information to their advantage.

Choosing the right online platform is the most important aspect of market research because not all market research platforms are created equal. Intellivy is an all-in-one marketplace simulation tool which will help you craft informative polls and get answers from our base of 28,000,000 US-based members. In addition to getting data-driven human insights, you’ll also get help optimizing your listings and tips on improving product design. With Intellivy, you’ll be able to skyrocket your sales and reach your business goals in no time! Click here to discover all the other benefits of using our platform and how it can help you. Curious to discover what Intellivy can do for you? Start your Free Forever Plan now and find out!