consumer behavior

Is the Sales Funnel Relevant in Predicting Buying Behavior of Digitized Customers?

by Douw G Steyn
May 21, 2019

[simple-author-box]

For ages now, marketers relied on the sales funnel to get insight into their potential customer’s thought process, challenges, and decisions. Indeed, the sales funnel is academically grounded in the marketing funnel, AIDA model (Attention + Interest + Desire + Action model), and the hierarchy of effects model ¹. It’s no wonder that one of the first models I’d to master early in my marketing studies was the AIDA model…

The ADIA model is thought of as a linear process which starts when the customer is becoming aware of a need and ends when he/she purchase a product or service to satisfy the need. The model derives from consumer psychology and specifically the cognitive journey a customer undertakes when buying a product.

The way that the sales funnel is commonly described graphically is shown below:

Good Store Atmospherics Helps Getting More Customers to your Retail Store

by Douw G Steyn
January 4, 2019January 4, 2019

[simple-author-box]

Store atmospherics that is prepared correctly and for your customers to enjoy will help to keep your store’s door open. Indeed, it may give you a competitive advantage over your nearest rivals. Furthermore, a customer that enjoyed a great experience while visiting your shop may return, and tell her friends about you.

After all, businesses have long recognized that humans as consumers are susceptible to all sorts of urges and emotions which guide them toward decisions to buy things they don’t need or didn’t previously recognize they needed, concurs Rob Duboff in the Harvard Business Review.

So, why not using store atmospherics?

Improve your Customers’ Online Experiences by Knowing their Personality Traits

by Douw G Steyn
May 8, 2018June 3, 2018
32 Comments

[simple-author-box]

Everyone needs a personality. After all, your personality facilitates all the important moments in your life, and is what you are really remembered for suggested Matt OKeefe, a lifehacktivist. Although everyone has a unique personality, the characteristics or qualities we display can be grouped into personality traits, which we’ll get later to. But let’s first have a look at what a personality is…

So what is personality?

Product Returns may Destroy Small Online Retailers

by Douw G Steyn
January 21, 2018June 3, 2018
6 Comments

[simple-author-box]

Product returns is getting unaffordable for most small online retailers. However, online retailers who don’t accept product returns will hardly sell any products – especially if it is clothing. That is because retailers need to accommodate the risk of their customers for buying their products online.

Voice-Activated Shopping an Effortless Customer Experience

by Douw G Steyn
September 7, 2017June 3, 2018
22 Comments

[simple-author-box]

Is voice-activated shopping the digital outcome that retailers need to offer their customers an effortless shopping experience? Or is it taking AI and machine learning a step too far?

Webrooming and Showrooming – Buying Behaviors of Retail Customers in Virtual and Physical Environments

by Douw G Steyn
July 17, 2017June 3, 2018
21 Comments

[simple-author-box]

Webrooming and showrooming are popular jargons that describe how retail customers use different combinations of online and physical channels to search for information about products, corroborate this information and make the purchase ⁴. These customers are tech savvy and they use their mobile phones to great effect to help them to decide what to buy where and at what price.

Demise of Loyal Retail Customers in the Digital Age

by Douw G Steyn
May 30, 2017June 3, 2018
3 Comments

[simple-author-box]

Loyal retail customers have for long now given Bricks and Mortar (BM) retailers an advantage over their competitors. However, the advent of the internet and the subsequent development of the online shopping channel have changed the shopping behaviour of retail customers.

Predictive Analytics helps Retailers to make sense of Big Data

by Douw G Steyn
May 8, 2017June 3, 2018
134 Comments

[simple-author-box]

“The most successful retail companies are utilizing data science and predictive analytics (PA) to improve efficiency, improve marketing campaigns, and gain significant customer insight for a competitive advantage” says Christine Kern, contributing for Innovative Retail Technology. But what about the “not so successful” retailers? How can they share in the advantages that Big Data and PA offer? Retailers can – by using predictive analytics.

Word of Mouth Marketing for Better or for Worse

by Douw G Steyn
March 21, 2017June 3, 2018
36 Comments

[simple-author-box]

Word of mouth (WOM) is one of the most important communication channels that customers use to discuss retail shops and brands. WOM is informal, frequent and important and the outcomes can be beneficial or disastrous for a brand or a retailer.

Generation Y, Showing the Way for Retailers in the Digital Age

by Douw G Steyn
February 18, 2017June 3, 2018
74 Comments

[simple-author-box]

Generation Y or Millenniums, comprises of individuals that were born between 1980 and 1994, and make up about 25% of the world’s population. Gen Y is therefore an important cohort for retailers to target because of its size and purchasing power. Retailers, as with the other generational cohorts (Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Z), need to know what the shopping behaviors of the Gen Yers are. But first we need to know who Generation Y is?