What and why do consumers buy? Every marketer should start with this question to understand their customers’ behavior and lead to the ultimate goal—to sell. Big or small business, when you know what makes your buyers tick and implement the right promotional strategies, you can persuade and sell a great deal.
Several factors influence consumers from buying certain products, although every person’s buying habit is unique. But these generic purchasing factors greatly help marketers determine their customers’ habits so that businesses can customize their products or service according to their findings.
Factors That Affect Your Customers’ Purchase Decision
Consumers go through the buying decision process once they feel the need for the product, but the process does not end there. Keep in mind the factors that influence your customers to buy certain products and services.
1. Personal factors
These would include a person’s income, age, lifestyle, and occupation. Age or generation groups buy differently. For instance, the Gen Z top shopping list would most likely include clothes, entertainment, and apps. Compare that to the elderly or Baby Boomers who spend most of their money on healthcare or pharmaceutical products. Then here comes the Gen Xers and millennials who are more focused on buying properties, cars, or houses for their families.
Personal income plays a role, too. Understandably, people in the low or middle-income brackets will spend mostly on necessities such as clothes and groceries. At the same time, those with a higher income can go beyond spending on luxurious products and services. People’s purchasing power will always affect what and how much they buy.
Consumers will also tend to buy products that relate to their job and lifestyle. For instance, doctors or lawyers will buy clothes that relate to their profession. Your lifestyle, whether healthy or not, influences what you will buy. Healthy consumers will go for healthy products than junk food.
2. Economic factors
Personal income plays in the purchasing ability of consumers and their family’s income and having liquid assets, consumer credit, and mindset on saving. A person has to have a higher disposable portion in their income, which refers to their money left after spending on necessities. Add to that all the family members’ income. The more members of a family earn, the more each person can spend on their personal wants and luxuries.
Consumer credit and liquid assets can also significantly increase spending. When consumers are offered easy credits to purchase products or services through hassle-free bank loans, installments, or other options for credit, they buy more items for their luxury and comfort. Those with higher liquid assets, such as savings, securities, or anything that can easily be converted to cash, also have higher confidence to buy more expensive goods.
Lastly, consumers will buy depending on how much they want to save. If they decide to keep more of their disposable income, then their buying will decrease.
3. Psychological factors
Psychology observes and explains the consumers’ purchasing behaviors. People buy goods based on their perception, motivation, learning, attitudes, and beliefs. Consumers have to be motivated by their specific needs to buy certain items, most of which are goods that meet their basic and security requirements.
How they treat, perceive, and learn about your product plays a role in their buying as well. Consumers will buy according to what they know about the product. This can be through experience, which is what every promotional items industry aims to give. Free items, advertisements, social media feedback, customer reviews, and many other marketing strategies can significantly increase their perception and learning about the product
4. Social factors
Social influences include family, reference groups, roles, and status. People by nature want to feel a sense of belonging, so it makes sense that they want to imitate and be accepted by others by buying what the people around them would. Their family plays a huge role in their behavior, having been around them and seeing what adults in the family buy growing up.
The group they are affiliated with, their status, and their role in society will influence them, too. For instance, a person with a wealthy status in the community will buy according to society’s perception, while those on average will buy differently.
Master the Art of Selling Products and Services
Before you promote your goods, it’s wise that you learn about your consumers first so that you don’t waste time and resources for your marketing strategies. After that, make them experience your products or services through free trials or promotional materials, which are a few of the highly persuasive means your business can take advantage of.
