For understanding the buying behavior of customers in a retail store it is very important to analyze customer psychology, before analyzing the customer’s buying behavior, let us first understand the difference between a customer and a consumer.
Difference between customer and consumer
A consumer is the ultimate user/ beneficiary of products/services whereas a customer is the one who purchases the product or service. For example, the mother buys a box of sweets for relatives, the mother, in this case, is considered a customer as she purchases the product, and relatives are considered consumers as they will use the product. In certain cases, the customer also becomes a consumer and their decisions are based on a number of factors like personal needs, buying capacity, etc.
Analyzing and Identifying the actual customers
Most of the time it’s impossible to identify the actual customer or real decision maker who will be going ahead with the purchase of a product/service. Hence, all who enter the retail store are considered customers. An understanding of the composition or origin of the actual customers will help in the analysis of the customer’s buying behavior in a much better manner:
- Analysis of the customer composition: This includes analysis of demographic factors like gender, age group, occupation, religion, economic & social status, and nationality.
- Understanding the origin of the customer: This involves an analysis of the place or location from where the customer reaches the retail store, the travel time spent by the customer for reaching the retail store, and the type of area in which the customer lives.
- Assessment of the customer objective: An analysis of the objective of the customer is very crucial whether a customer is actually in the mood for buying a product or simply is engaged in a shopping endeavor.
Customer buying behavior and patterns
A consumer’s buying behavior is largely governed by the needs, preferences, and tastes of the customers for whom the product /service is ultimately purchased. Numerous patterns influence the buying behaviour of the customer:
- Place or the location of purchase: a lot of customers prefers to purchase their preferred products by visiting various stores in different locations for comparing the prices and the offers. Hence, a customer does not remain loyal to a single store for a long period of time. A retail store should pay a lot of importance to the store location, identifying distributors in close vicinity, and also the nature of the merchandise and their ready availability of stocks.
- Types of products to be purchased and quality of purchase: This essentially implies an analysis of the type of product which a consumer will want to purchase and in how much quantity. This will depend on the factors like buying capacity of the customer, product perishability or durability, availability of a product, choices of customer requirements of the product, whether the product is available in abundance or there is a shortage of the product, and product storage.
Frequency of purchase and the time during when a product is purchased
Retailers should adjust their work hours as per the perk time availability of customers, which includes giving adequate consideration to various factors such as weather season variations, and customer location.The product purchase frequency will largely depend upon the following factors:
- The product type
- Customer lifestyle
- How essential or necessary the product is
- Festival, rituals, and customs
- The extent of influence of the individual who accompanies the ultimate buyer of the product.
For example, an average middle-income group Indian customer may have the capacity of going ahead with the decision of purchasing a car not more than three times across his / her lifetime, whereas an average middle-class the USA will buy cars and replace it more frequently.
Purchase method
This involves an analysis of the following factors such as:
- Whether the customer is buying the product alone or is companied by someone else.
- Whether a customer makes the payment by cash or by way of debit/credit cards, net banking, or on a credit basis.
- An analysis of the mode of conveyance of customer.
Customers’ response towards the sales promotional techniques
Various sales promotion methods increase the impulsive buying behaviour of the customer as and when a customer enters the shop. The retailers depend upon the following sales promotion techniques for influencing the buying behaviour of their customers:
Product display: product display create an aesthetic appeal and hence influences the buying behaviour of the customer.
- Demonstration: product demonstrations helps a lot in motivating the customer for buying the product by making them aware of the usage of products sample.
- Special schemes and pricing: various product schemes, offers, special prices during festive seasons or off seasons, coupons, special offers, contests, etc. Play a crucial role in molding customer buying behaviour.
- Product display: product displays create an aesthetic appeal and hence influence the buying behaviour of the customer.
- Sales talks delivered verbally: by the sales reps at the store or printed advertisements also influence the buying behaviour of the customers.
Why It’s Important to Write an MBA Marketing Project for IGNOU
Students who had never written an essay or project for a college degree suffered greatly when it came time to write their project at the university level. This is primarily due to their ignorance of the IGNOU MBA marketing project writing process.
This prerequisite is necessary at this level because the student will need to write a final report or an MBA project at the end of their academic careers. This kind of MBA marketing project writing is a crucial component to ensuring the highest ratings and locating the levels with distinction.
All learners must deal with the most common issue, which is their inability to write well. Therefore, developing the best writing skills would be the first stage in the IGNOU MBA marketing project writing process. Along with purchasing a finished project, many students consult online project writing services. Do not forget to avoid plagiarism while writing a marketing project.
Conclusion
As per the current scenario, marketing and promotion become important for every corporate industry which increases the demand for MBA in Marketing project graduates. Writing a marketing project for your IGNOU MBA takes a lot of work. Developing strategies and preparing for products or services, advertisements, promotions, and sales to reach desired client groups are all part of the practice of marketing management. The top suggestion is to work with students to develop a reasonable MBA project that will help them hone their academic writing abilities.
