To understand customers and their proces of bying is crucial. No matter if you're a webshop, retailer or just a marketeer and you want to drive sale and generate traffic.

Five different steps describe the Customer Buying Process*. Need Recognition is the first step in the customer’s decision Process. A purchase will not happen without the recognition. The need may have been triggered by hunger or thirst - internal stimuli – or external stimuli like advertising and word-of-mouth. The next step is Information Search. Having recognised a need, information is needed to find the best solution. The next step is therefore Evaluation of Alternatives. Customers will evaluate different brands at this stage on the basis of alternative product attributes and benefits. The penultimate step is where the purchase takes place and therefore called Purchase Decision. Visibility is crucial and should be in line with the brands soul. And finally on the basis of being either satisfied or dissatisfied, customers will communicate their positive or negative feedback about the product. This may be through reviews on website, social media networks or word of mouth. Companies should always be very careful to create positive Post Purchase Behaviour, in order to engage customers.

 

* Introduced by John Dewey