Ultimate Consumer Psychology Guide For eCommerce Marketing
Updated on February 9, 2022 in Ecommerce by Nishant Shrimali
Understanding the consumer behavior of the target audience is critical in the eCommerce and marketing industry. The more you know about your potential customer the better it is.
In this simple attempt to understand the customer, consumer psychology in marketing is a study that helps us understand how a customer thinks.
After going through various studies, tests, and research on consumer psychology, this guide is a super quick peek that you can use.
As said, consumer psychology in marketing is playing a critical role. So, in this guide, we are going to discuss:
- What is Consumer Psychology?
- Importance of consumer psychology
- Types customer behavior
- Use of Consumer psychology in eCommerce marketing
The goal of this article is to share some valuable insights that can help you frame your next strategy in a more meaningful manner. If we succeed, do share this article with your fellows and tag us in your post. Would love to hear what you have to say.
What is Consumer Psychology?
Consumer Psychology is the study of how does a customer makes a decision (consciously and unconsciously). It is also used to understand how can change in marketing, product, or presentation can influence the decision making of the consumer.
This is done through intense research, testing, and interaction of clients to understand their buying behavior.
The study of consumer behavior becomes very critical to improve the conversion rate on the eCommerce store and gain more returning customers for years to come.
Some use of consumer psychology is in copywriting, product creation, marketing, predicting future trends, and more.
Importance of Consumer Psychology
By the mere definition, it is very clear that one can easily create and sell a captivating product if he or she understands the thinking process of the consumer.
Here are some importance of consumer psychology in marketing and eCommerce that must be given a good thought on.
Creating better personas to sell
Customer personas are the backbone of marketing. The more strong and rigid they are, the more stable your whole marketing campaign is.
While most of the eCommerce relies on just demographical and geographical data, the use of consumer behavior in your research can instantly add much more life to the persona.
It gives one the ability to understand the problems and perspective of the customer more clearly.
Building connections with customers
The better you know a person the easier it is to form a connection. This is a simple truth that we all understand. Now, when we learn about consumer behavior in eCommerce, we can easily understand what they are looking for in a good purchase.
Understanding simple triggers and the way consumer reacts to them can magnify the effect at the extremes. It helps you in building a value-adding connection between the brand and the consumer.
A slight change in the presentation of the product, adding a new feature on your site, or just a simple tweak in the content on your site can help you turn your prospects into loyal customers.
Improving Customer Experience
Customer experience has become the top priority of eCommerce around the world. This seems to be a game-changer, as almost 84% of the online consumer are willing to pay more, in return for a great customer experience.
They look out for eCommerce that is willing to take that extra step in understanding what consumers want and create a great customer experience based on their learning.
Without any exaggeration, customer psychology in marketing will help you know what steps to take.
From creating a brand persona in the eye of your customer to creating a better interaction, the use of customer psychology improves the results exponentially.
Creating better campaigns
Last but not the least, understanding consumer psychology in marketing comes in handy when you are creating a campaign for your eCommerce.
This could be a branding campaign, campaign for reach, ad campaign, or anything of your choice.
Understanding consumer psychology in marketing can help you curate a strategy that your customer wants to be part of.
This makes the whole marketing process more efficient and helps the marketing team create a new and untouched market.
Types of Consumer Behaviour
Based on the perception of the brand, the price as well as the availability of the product, and the frequency of the purchase, there are 4 main types of consumer behavior.
1. Complex Buying Behaviour
Complex buying behavior is a trait that is encountered when making a rather luxury or a one-time purchase. This includes a car, home, LED TV, etc. These products aren’t regularly bought and are very expensive to a consumer.
As a result, the consumer does a lot of research, before making a purchase. It is a very significant purchase, and hence a lot of research and reviews are taken into consideration before finally making the purchase.
2. Dissonance Reducing Buying Behaviour
The Dissonance Reducing Buying Behaviour occurs when there is fear of dissatisfaction post-purchase of the product. This is usually among the products which are not frequently bought as well as there is limited availability of the product in the market.
Here, the consumers find it difficult to compare two products as little to no information is available on the specific products.
Your goal here should be to ensure your consumer that they are making the right choice.
3. Habitual Buying Behaviour
The Habitual buying behavior is seen when the price of the product is not a major concern, there is good availability of the product and there are many options to choose from.
Moreover, there is no major involvement from the consumer side, as the product is bought regularly out of habit.
Some examples of the Habitual Buying Behaviour are salt, toothpaste, tea, coffee, etc.
These are potentially small purchases that do not require intense research like discussed in the above two consumer behaviors.
4. Variety Seeking Behaviour
The variety-seeking behavior is the one where the consumer is open to purchasing a new product as the pricing factor rarely stands out. Here the consumer is open to switching between the brand just to try out other options.
Once you are aware of these 4 types of consumer behavior, you can easily categorize your products and reach out to your customer based on their pain points.
Customer Behavior Segmentation
Customer behavior segmentation is the process of dividing a broad group of the audience into small groups based on common traits/ characteristics.
While you know now the importance of customer psychology in marketing and the type of consumer behavior, you need to understand how to group your customers effectively.
Benefit Sought
When consumers are researching a product, they look out for the benefits, its features, and the problem it helps in solving.
Knowing all this can help identify the pain point of your customer and understand what they are looking to learn about the product.
This can help in creating much better and targeted content while focusing on the most searched query.
Occasion Based Segmentation
The next on the list of the Customer behavior segmentation is the occasion based. Here we look out for occasions when an individual is more likely to make a purchase. It is seen that active online buyers have a routine that they normally follow.
Some people purchase during the holiday season. Whereas some make a purchase on their occasion that is the birthday, anniversary, etc.
In both situations, customer behavior varies a lot. These little insights into consumer psychology in marketing can help create a more personal approach and help the brand to stay more memorable.
Brand Loyalty Status
Brand Loyalty Status is a very important Customer behavior segmentation when it comes to finding out the most valuable customer to the business.
The loyalty status allows the brand to identify the customer who is actively purchasing from them. These are the customer whose cost of retention is lower than the new customer and have higher lifetime value.
These are also the customer who is the source of mouth publicity, hence helping the whole business grow.
An eCommerce must make sure that these customers are always satisfied by the service and product. Moreover, you can also share exclusive rewards with your loyal customers to engage with them regularly and remind them that they are important to you.
Usage rate
This is a simple question to ask while going through the analytics. How often does the customer interact with the brand?
The more a customer engages with your brand the better it is.
These are signs of loyal customers who are most likely to have higher lifetime value and are going to have a lower cost of retention.
User Status
Based on various stages of the customer in your business, the user status can be divided into the following segments.
- Non-users – The ones who have not ever used your product because they are not aware of it, or because they are loyal to another brand/product.
- Prospects – These are the people who know about your product, have to take a trial or are engaged with your brands in some way.
- First-Time Buyers – People who have bought your products for the first time.
- Regular Buyers – These are your loyal customers who buy your products regularly.
- Ex-Customers – These are people who are no longer your customer and have shifted to another brand.
Customer Journey Stage
To understand consumer psychology in marketing it is very important to understand the customer journey first. It is very important to learn, what stage the customer is at, and how would he like to interact with the brand.
Having a thorough customer journey helps the eCommerce discover any friction that the customer is facing at a particular stage and refine the whole journey.
What affects Consumer Psychology?
The goal of understanding consumer psychology in marketing is to influence the customer to make the right choice by purchasing from you. If you are running an eCommerce for a while, you will know that good product are not enough to grow the eCommerce.
You need to reach your customer, tell them about your product and convince them to give it a try. Moreover, you will also have to also ensure that the whole buying experience of your customer is organized and catered accordingly.
All this affects customer psychology and is a necessity when you are running an online store. Here are some common ways to influence consumer psychology in marketing.
Marketing Campaign
A good marketing campaign can cause an explosive effect when it comes to influencing customers to make a purchase. It can persuade them to learn more about the product, find out how it is useful to them, and can solve their problem.
Economic Conditions
The next is the Economic condition of your customers. This plays a huge role in affecting consumer psychology especially if it is a luxury purchase such as a house, car, etc. Before making any purchase, the economical condition of the individual will play a great role.
Personal Preferences
While marketing campaigns can have a great influence on customer psychology, personal preferences affect the final call of making a purchase. This includes likes, dislikes, values and beliefs, and much more. All this plays a key role in making buying decisions.
Group Influence
Group influence is another major effect on consumer psychology. People around us influence a lot of our choices depending on the way we dree, the food we eat, the device we use, and more. While marketing campaigns aren’t capable of shifting personal preferences, a group can influence what one wants to purchase.
Purchasing Power
At last personal finance will be playing a key role in the buying decision. Even if the marketing is great, all people are praising the product and even if one wants to buy the product if his or her budget doesn’t allow them, they won’t be able to make the purchase.
Hence, even while creating a marketing campaign, one must keep the purchasing power of your target audience in mind.
5 Use of Consumer Psychology in marketing
Consumer psychology in marketing has always made a great influence on attracting the target audience and affecting their buying decisions. Marketers all over the world have used and as a matter of fact, are using psychological tricks to affect the way consumer perceive their products.
While there are hundreds of methods being implemented based on customer behavior, here are 5 use of consumer psychology in marketing.
Color Psychology
It is no secret to many of us that color plays a vital role in creating a perspective in the eyes of the customer. Our brain associates some colors as friendly and trustworthy were some other colors as powerful and sensual.
While creating a brand or a branding campaign, it is very important to learn color psychology. It affects the customer in many ways helps you create a perception of your brand even before the customer engages.
Social Proof
Humans are social animals. They have evolved themselves to be surrounded by like-minded people who do the same things and have their values. That is why brand or products with higher social proof tends to be more trustworthy.
This trust becomes more prominent when you learn about a brand/product through a friend. The influence of a group plays a major role, hence when it comes from a trusted source the information stands out to be more valuable.
Visualizing
The next use of consumer psychology in marketing is the ability to paint a picture in the head. This could be through visual art, music, or just words.
Marketers often use this technique to paint the problem in the consumer’s head and replace it with the solution that is their product.
The human brain is capable of imitating emotional stories. If one can create a compelling brand story they can use consumer psychology in marketing very effectively.
Fear Of Missing Out
While we all wish to be part of a group, we also want to stand out and be superior to others in one way or another.
If a group of the audience is talking about a particular topic we too wish to learn more about it. This fear of missing out is very prominent and is used widely during flash sales.
Buy Now Pay Later
Last but not least BNPL is Buy Now Pay Later is another use of Consumer Psychology in marketing. It targets the effect of purchasing power of an individual motivating and allowing the customer to make purchases and pay for the product in small installments.
This flexibility has allowed both customer and eCommerce at the same time. Where customers can buy products of their choice in installments, eCommerces’ have seen an 85% lift on the average order value of their store.
Conclusion
To sum up, we have discussed Consumer psychology in marketing and consumer behavior for helping you get started with breaking down your customer persona. Not only does this helps in understanding your target audience but also helps in selling better.
Once you start learning more about your customer and their interaction with your product, you start discovering ways to connect with them. This starts with solving their problem first and ends with selling your product to them at the end.
If you liked this guide, do share it with your fellows. Share this article on social media and tag PixelPhant. Would love to hear what you have to say.
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