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Understanding a consumer's personality is key to engagement, purchase activity

Providing the best retail customer experience is tied to many things and one is knowing exactly who the customer is, what they’re looking for and where they’re looking to find what they need.

January 11, 2016

Providing the best retail customer experience is tied to many things and one is knowing exactly who the customer is, what they’re looking for and where they’re looking to find what they need.

The key, notes an industry expert, is assessing the customer, their wants and desires, and the best approach for meeting all those expectations.

As Liraz Margalit, a customer experience psychologist, explains in a column at Tech Crunch, retailers need to slot customers into a 'online personality' persona,

"Unlike in the days of brick and mortar stores, customers in today's online shopping marketplace are cloaked in layers of anonymity, their wants, desires and specific shopping styles all filtered out by keyboards and IP addresses," writes Margalit.

"We all have clearly identifiable personalities when we shop online, and our online behavior sends specific cues — just like our clothes, appearance and mannerisms would in real life — that can be crucial for companies to understand when targeting clients."

Margalit has broken down personality segments into the following categories and provides insight on how to get each different consumer to the purchase point:

Wish list shopper (today’s modern-day window shopper) and the best way to entice is to offer up an incentive, such as a coupon or discount.

Brand-oriented shopper (an ultimate impulse buyer) Marketing is easy given they focus on a label or brand.

Rational shopper (opposite of brand shopper) can be enticed with good product info.

Maximizer shopper (obsessed with gathering data before a purchase) and marketing must be streamlined and organized.

Satisfier (focused on purchasing needed product) and goal is not to waste their time.

Hesitator (tend to freeze more than buy) rewards can be a good way to nudge them to the purchase point.

"If you can identify a shopper's personality, you can tailor your website to help get him exactly where you want him to go — onto the checkout page and straight into conversion," Margalit stated.