9 Types of eCommerce Customers

Adage says ‘Customer is king’. Every business has to understand the needs of a Customer and match the precise expectations of him/her to be successful. While easier said and done, how do a business profile each customer needs and make a product or a productline. There came the concept of Segmentation (pioneered by Philip Kotler, the Marketing Guru) where Customers are grouped into few buckets with certain commonalities in their psychographic/demographic profiles. Marketing experts drew up a series of theories around these and drafted many immutable laws in this direction (Read Jack Trout’s Positioning, Differentiate or Die).

But on one fine day, eCommerce superseded the traditional commerce and redefined the way the Customers need to be looked at. While the World woke upto eCommerce much earlier, especially USA & China, the phenomenon took few years to catch up with Indian subcontinent. Indian consumers went berserk riding on the wave of neck breaking speed growth of Indian eCommerce industry. Consumers were unaware of the right and wrong ways of engaging in eCommerce buys. Adding to this chaos, Indian eCommerce aggregators (Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal) resorted to unorthodox means to attract buyers to eCom from traditional trade. Concepts like Cash-on-Delivery, Free Returns, Instant Delivery, Mega Discounts etc., were earlier unheard of. Customers also started flocking to eCommerce albeit with a lot of reservations. Engagement methods of customers (Consumer Behaviour) with eCommerce were although extremely weird compared to their traditional outlet based buys. At this juncture, the traditional segmentation methodology & Positioning/ Differentiation strategies failed miserably. Many large brands were unable to comprehend this new Consumer Behaviour and they had failed to capture the mind share of Consumers in online space. Meanwhile few unheard of brands made huge ripples and shook up many Product Categories with clearer understanding of this online Consumer Behaviour. While it is still evolving in nature, let’s check out the present Online Consumer Behaviourism by fragmenting them under 9 Broad Categories:

1.   THE REJECTOR

2.   ORDER MULTIPLIER

3.   INSTANT REVIEWER

4.   THE GOOD GUY

5.   ANXIOUS TRACKER

6.   ANALYSIS/ PARALYSIS

7.   BARGAIN HUNTER

8.   INNOCENT TROUBLEMAKER

9.   R&D CHIEF

Let’s now study each of the above group in detail and learn their characteristics:

1.THE REJECTOR

First customer to study in detail is this guy. The Rejector is a real pain-in-the-xxx for all concerned in the eCom ecosystem. Be it the Aggregators, Brand Owners, Marketers, Logistics partners – The Rejector inflicts a huge burden on the bottomline for every one of them & a drain on the overall economy of the nation itself.

An order placed can be returned by The Rejector for many reasons as:

a.   Product not matching expectations

b.   Ordering without an actual need

c.   Sale Day ordering for fun of it

d.   No money to pay for order

e.   Ordered without family consent

f.    Genuine product issues

Excluding the last category, all the other reasons above are a huge loss for the ecosystem. Cash-on-Delivery is key reason behind this nature of ‘The Rejector’. If one is committed to make a payment, then such rejections shall be minimal. eCom ecosystem must work towards this cause.

Returns are as high as 30-40% in categories like Electronics, 20% in Appliances, 20% in Fashion. A large part of these returns cannot be monetised by anyone in the ecosystem thereby it goes as a huge waste of resources.

2.ORDER MULTIPLIER

Zappos, top online footwear etailer in USA offered a solution to its customers to allay fears of the right shoe size to buy. A customer can buy 2 shoes – one of their right size and the other bigger or smaller. Delivery person will wait for the customer to try out both sizes & they can pick up a suitable size amongst two and return the other one. All this jhumla came at no extra cost to the customer. This overcame a big fear among customers and was an instant success.

Above solution was conceived in the right sense. However, an “Order Multiplier” takes advantage of this solution in Indian eCommerce. Every single order of an Order Multiplier will have a multiple of it. For example, a Headphone is to be bought, 2 shall be bought in different designs/ types and one shall be returned. Colours are the best part of it – Order Pink & White, Like Pink, Send back the White. This has got immense ramification for a marketer (though it is great GMV for aggregators) as the other returned product needs to go thru QC, Repacking etc., to be made resaleable.

Order Multipliers presume that they are the smartest decision makers but they have a detrimental impact on the eCom ecosystem.

3. INSTANT REVIEWER

This consumer prefers to review the product even before opening up and using it fully up. Sometimes it may look like the product was bought just to leave a review. As a system in Amazon, these types of reviewers are most sought out by the platform as well as its users. There are Categories of Reviewers created by the sheer volume of the reviews which gets them to elite ‘Top 500 Reviewer”, “Top 100 Reviewer” clubs.

When you see a review like “Just opened the xxx, packaging looks nice. Built is sturdy. Will use it for few days and give a complete review” (many a time, this will never happen), you can be rest assured that this is an Instant Reviewer. They take pride and joy in reviewing about a product and more so their prominent name displays online.

While few of them are fair in giving the right opinion, others shall be too stringent in rewarding review stars. You might come across simple review like ‘Nice’ and yet awarded a 3 Star. These are critical instant reviewers.

Reviewers may get a halo after many such Instant Reviews thereby catapulting them into a Star status and they are most sought after by the brands. Genuine feedback on a product shall go a long way in assisting millions of Customer purchases. But when it is being misused, platform must come strongly against their practices.

There is a sub-sect of this Instant Reviewer Customer group who gets paid up by brands to create positive reviews. We have come across brands which build up more than 100 reviews in less than a week whereas organically this may take upto 4 months to get so many genuine review numbers. As a Customer, do not just get swayed by the number of reviews and any instance of more than 80% reviews in 5-Star category & many reviews having photos/videos, one has to be watchful of it. On the other hand, few brands pay up Instant Reviewers to give even Negative Reviews for its competition brands just to kill them.

Having stated this, AI has become so powerful such reviews are erased in few days and Reviewers are prohibited to publish reviews. This intelligence must grow better by the day to get genuine product reviews.

4.THE GOOD GUY

Well, well, well, this is the Consumer that everybody in the ecommerce ecosystem is looking out for. He follows a standard purchase protocol. He buys a good quantity of all his product requirements online. He does a genuine purchase. He buys only what he truly need to buy. He pays the optimum pricing. He reviews most of his purchases. He leaves a decent review. He waits for the product to arrive as per order TAT. He opens up package & uses the product in the proper way. Hardly returns the product unless it is defective. He appreciates the seller for having done a timely delivery with a Seller Review. He even goes a step further as a good Samaritan by answering other customer’s queries (Q&A section).

When you see a feedback like “Amazing product. I am thankful for such a wonderful product. Thanks to Amazon to have such a product. Good seller and quick delivery”, this is THE GOOD GUY.

The good guy creates such a good atmosphere in ecommerce ecosystem that makes every stakeholder gain confidence and happiness. If only a brand/ marketer can identify the base of such Good Guys, eCommerce business will be given the utmost importance among the product companies.

5. ANXIOUS TRACKER

Yet another nightmare to every stakeholder in eCom business especially the Logistics Delivery company. Odd timings, Diff address, Sharp timeline, Frequent Caller, SMS Checker etc., are the typical demands raised an Anxious Tracker during the order process. Knowing fully well (& sometimes ignorant of it) they make certain outrageous demand which can never be fulfilled:

“I have placed an order for XYZ and it is scheduled to reach in 4-5 days. But I want it tomorrow as I need to gift it urgently to a friend. Can it be done?”

“I placed an order for XYZ and I want this to be delivered by the courier company ABC as others are not good in delivering orders in a proper manner”

“Can my order be delivered between 9-11pm in the night?”

They tend to keep clicking the ‘Shipment Tracker’ every one hour to know their order delivery status. Keeps calling the Platform, the Marketer, Logistics company every few hours to check when this can be delivered. If the delivery range is 3-4 days, their trigger point starts from the 3rd day 1st hour onwards.

Nevertheless to look at the positive side of this Customer Group, they are the ones who push the entire system to be more efficient and faster. They do ensure no lapses happen at multiple points of an order management system.

On a lighter note, many-a-times, orders of Anxious Tracker will get invariably delayed and this will put a lot fire fighting efforts to track & deliver the order.

6.ANALYSIS PARALYSIS

Irrespective of value or size of order, every single product purchase goes thru an immense process of ANALYSIS. Every minute detail if it matters or not is scanned by this Customer group before making a purchase. Colour, Size, Watts, Power consumption, Length of cord, Packaging – details which are critical and essential to be evaluated before purchase. Beyond this, non-essential details like ‘Brand A vs Brand B’, ‘Styling A vs Styling B’ etc., are also explored in the purchase decision.

They deepdive into probing questions such as: Where is the company based out of? Who are its founders? How big is the employee size? How much product range do they have? How long the brand is in existence? What is the product’s technical specification? How many reviews does the product have? What is the negative feedback about the product?

Q&A section shall be filled with questions by this Customer group. Most of them are genuine concerns pre-purchase, some are bizarre queries which shall be puzzling for a Marketer to answer. Few of them go that extra mile to call up the Marketer on Product enquiries, future warranty support, service network etc., before making a purchase decision.

Too much of this analysis will lead to decision making paralysis many-a-time. While it is supposed to help make a purchase, it often deters or steers away the crux of the decision leading to a wrong purchase.

Nevertheless, quality content about a product gets created only based on such Customer group intense probing process. This pushes a marketer to offer maximum information/ detailing about a product which hitherto would have been unavailable to all potential customers.

7. BARGAIN HUNTER

Driving force behind eCommerce wave in its heydays were primarily Discounts. This drove a huge mass of critical consumer base from offline to online. Trials were made purely owing to this delta quotient in pricing. This consumer behaviour has become the order-of-the-day in eCommerce. Even after most ecom companies shifted out of deep discounting practice, a select group of Customers stuck to this habit & they just didn’t change.

Bargain Hunters keep a track of the Price variations on a daily basis. Bargain Hunter always will have shortlisted products in their cart. Bargain Hunter keeps watch over the Big sale days. Bargain Hunter looks out for Lightning deals & other price offers. Bargain Hunter signs up for Pre-Sale Booking list (especially for mobiles). Bargain Hunter knows when big brands will announce sale days. Bargain Hunter waits till midnight to grab a sale deal. Bargain Hunter does not rush up to buy a product even if it is a necessity if it is not on sale. To sum it up Bargain Hunters are the smartest lot among consumers. Degree of smartness can vary among Bargain Hunters Customer group but they are indeed smarter than the whole lot.

Any quantum jump in sales experienced by marketers (when they offer a price deal) could be largely attributed to Bargain Hunters. Having made a purchase, Bargain Hunters also experience a high quotient of post purchase dissonance in case of price reduction. They feel jubilant if the price moves North boasting up their smart intelligence.

8. INNOCENT TROUBLEMAKER

You might have heard of stories (factual) of Mobile companies getting back bricks as returns instead of their high end mobile phones. Being so customer friendly in nature, eCom platforms levitate towards customers and put down claims made by marketers or make the whole claim process cumbersome. We have had experiences of receiving cheap plastic jugs inplace of expensive Filtration Pitchers. Used up Blender jars, Opened up fans, Deformed mixer cups (using piping hot liquid), Detached Batteries – these are very common instances of product misuse by a Customer.

Innocent Troublemaker Customer group even after indulging in such malpractices takes comfort in hassle-free return policies, returns the product claiming it to be defective. When a marketer confront them with photo evidences they play it innocent and claims it is only a Product fault or it was received by him/her in such condition. In an interesting case, an Innocent Troublemaker claimed a refund for a defective product after 10 months of extensive usage refusing to take a replacement (covered under 1 year warranty).

Learning for a marketer to handle this Innocent Troublemaker group is to be stringent on ‘Returns Receipt’ process documenting with photos/videos. eCom platforms has to take a balanced approach and deploy AI to identify such miscreants and levy penalties on such practices. A simple request to an Innocent Troublemaker is to be prudent and genuine in their approach.

9.R&D CHIEF

A marketer might have thought he had a Eureka moment by launching a product. But this thought bubble can be burst by an R&D chief.

Few ideas are definite value-adds or need gaps required by the Customers. But many ideas may be just cosmetic additions or an inspiration from another industry or simply an impossible change to make.

Again Q&A sections will be filled up with such R&D Chief suggestion or queries. Few shall be hilarious to read though. Biggest challenge for a marketer is when a R&D chief buys a product and then demands such bizzare changes to be made immediately.

Every single change to a product involves a lot of study, investment and time. This is hardly understood by R&D Chiefs and they think the marketers are listening to its customer needs.

Nevertheless, few brilliant ideas come from this Customer group R&D chief and which can be a starting point for a whole new product concept. Gone are the days where a company needs to approach few thousands of customers to understand a need gap & deliver a product matching this need (Consumer Research). This Customer Group R&D Chief makes this Consumer Research simpler and virtually at ZERO cost. Brands, do watch out for these guys/gals!

CONCLUSION:

While an attempt is made to broadly classify Customer into groups, the above 9 types shall not be exclusive groups. There shall be definite overlaps across Customer groups which makes this segmentation even more difficult. But an understanding of the type of a Customer certainly helps a marketer to address a particular issue in the easiest possible manner. Never overreact to a case, never underplay a case – Be optimal in approach & a marketer shall be able to address any such cases before it becomes an unsolveable problem. This understanding also helps a marketer to improve bottomline by channelizing its resources and effort in handling multiple groups of Customers.

As a Consumer, do classify yourself under the 9 Types mentioned above. There is nothing wrong or right in being part of any of the above group. Do ride the eCom wave, reap the best benefit but never try to spoil the business game.

Platforms have a larger role in segmenting such Customer groups, fruitfully address each one of them and connect them to the right marketer to maximize the market potential. 

Long live eCommerce!

Written by: 

Prathab.A
Director - BlueDeer Ventures Pvt Ltd
Chennai, India.

(Marketing Professional with 17+ years experience in Branding, 
Business Development, Strategy Consulting, eCommerce)