How to Use Customer Behaviour Intelligence in a Retail Business
Consider how well you know your friends. You know what they like and what they don’t like, and what brands they prefer to shop with and where they would go to eat. How amazing would it be, and how profitable, if you knew all your customers this well? Sounds impossible, right?
Well, not entirely. A process known as customer behavior intelligence aims to give you this exact information. With it, you’ll be able to understand what your customers want and what they’re looking for, and then you can make decisions that will correspond with their needs; thus, you’ve got yourself a successful retail business.
Analyzing your customer’s behaviors t’s simpler than it sounds… Easy peasy!
Analyzing your customer’s behaviors sounds like scary technical stuff, and you’re probably thinking you’ve already got enough on your plate without another process to deal with, but trust me, it’s simpler than it sounds, and it’s super beneficial. Let’s get right into it.
Defining Customer Behaviour
Really quickly, just so we’re on the same page, customer behavior refers to how your customers think and act. Hubspot describes it really well by saying, ‘it’s not who is shopping in your store, but it’s how people are shopping in your store.’ Thank you, Hubspot.
It’s how they look at your sales items, offers, promotions, and even your store layout and color branding, and then how this information makes them want to make a sale or makes them leave as quickly as possible.
Figuring Out Customer Behaviour
There are several approaches to customer behavior you can look at and several factors involved that you’ll need to look at to build up an accurate picture of your customer and how they behave.
Personality Traits
This is the most important point to consider. If you think of Starbucks, or Nike, or a surf retail shop, you immediately get this image of the typical customer to that store. Of course, this is generally speaking, but this helps you to define your ideal customer and create content and the sorts that will talk to them on an emotional level.
Social Trends
Matt Wills, a marketing expert at Draft Beyond and Last Minute Writing, explains, “While external to your store, it’s essential you look at current social trends and consider how they’re affecting your business. If you’re a fashion store that sells fur among your catalog, and social trends are against hunting, people aren’t going to want to come to your store and will look upon you negatively,”
Some trends are temporary, while some have a lasting effect, so it’s important to think about how trends are affecting you and what you’re doing about them.
Your Customer’s Psychology
This is a hard one. It’s difficult to predict and analyze how a customer thinks because if they come into your store when they’re happy, the same person may act differently than if they come into your store when they’re sad. However, you can think about both states of mind; you can start to create a broader image of your customers.
Remember, you’re not really looking at customers on an individual level here, but instead looking at the bigger pictures. How do your ads and displays and imagery make your customers feel? If they’re having a bad day, does seeing what you’re offering make them feel worse?
How to Carry Out the Customer Behaviour Analysis
Okay, into the nitty-gritty now. How to actually carry out an analysis of your customers. There are multiple approaches to this, but the easiest way would be to segment your customers by how we spoke about them above (personality, moods, etc.) and demographically (age, gender, locations).
“Take these segments are now defined, which are the most valuable to your business. Which segments would your business go broke without? You can use a customer life value calculator to figure this out,” shares Nina Marie, a business analyst at Writinity and Researchpapersuk.
With this in mind, now take a look at the benefits these groups provide and how you can influence them, such as encouraging them to make a decision to purchase and how you can create a retail experience to suit their needs and meet their expectations.
That’s pretty much all there is to it! With the data you collect from your analysis, you’ll have everything you need to take action and really make the best decisions for your business, Don’t forget to repeat this process every now and then to ensure you’re keeping up with the shifts in the markets!
Ashley Halsey is a professional business writer and marketing consultant at Cardiff Assignment Writing Service and Gumessays.com, who loves helping businesses both big and small maximize their potential. Mother of two children, she enjoys yoga, reading, and attending business networking meetings.
