What type of consumer is your target customer? Do they shop every day or only occasionally? Do they do a lot of research or are they impulse buyers? Understanding what type of consumer your business targets can help to understand their buying behaviour. The more you understand what drives your customer to make a purchase, the more you understand how to connect with them emotionally on your website or through your storefront. Additionally, consumers that connect emotionally go beyond price when making a purchase decision. These loyal customers don’t mind spending more for your product. They also provide excellent referrals to friends and family. This is why it’s worth understanding what makes your target customer checkmark. What drives their behaviour? How can you use that knowledge to increase your profitability?

In general, there are four factors that influence consumer behaviour. These factors impact whether or not your target customer buys your product. They are cultural, social, personal and psychological.

How Do Cultural and Social Factors Play a Role in Consumer Behaviour?

Culture and social factors can play a major role in the popularity of a product. Industry groups spend a lot of money trying to influence popular opinion because they know how influential culture can be on industry sales. Be mindful of culture and social factors when creating your marketing. You want to attract as many customers as possible without offending anyone.

How Do Personal Factors Play a Role in Consumer Behaviour?

In addition to cultural and social factors, personal factors also influence consumer behaviour. Tastes change over time. According to aging experts, senior consumer behaviours are highly variable, meaning that as a group they have more reasons for buying something than teenagers. If this is your target market, it’s important to know what those reasons are. Lifestyle, personality, and economic class may also influence behaviour. Class impacts education level, background, occupation, and health. As a result, the buying behaviour of one economic class can be very different from another. You want to make sure everyone in your target audience has access to your product regardless of age or economic class. The more people that have access, the better. This is particularly the case for payment methods.

How Do Psychological Factors Play a Role in Consumer Behaviour?

There are four psychological factors that influence consumer behaviour: Motivation, perception, learning, and attitude or belief system. Motivation speaks to the internal needs of the consumer. Understanding how to motivate your customer is a powerful tool. The way your target customer perceives the world or learns about your product, whether online or in person, can also influence behaviour. Finally, belief systems have the ability to influence all of the above. For example, some people learn best visually. This explains why pictures and images are so important for marketing.

Consumers make purchase decisions every day. When they make a decision about your product, they’re thinking about solving a need. That need may be driven by a variety of factors. Each of the factors listed above can be tied back to ways a small business can leverage its storefront or website to increase the probability of a sale. Keep these factors in mind when designing your marking materials.