7 Types of Ecommerce Consumer Personas and How to Influence Them to Buy

• Author By Miva    |
• Posted on
• • November 19, 2020

• Ecommerce 101

How well do you know your consumers? 

To thrive in ecommerce, it is important to understand your target audience. Modern consumers expect personalized services and a relevant buying process that’s tailored to their needs. A tried and true method of understanding your customer base is by creating buyer personas. When you direct your messaging and website offerings towards specific types of customers, it resonates with buyers in a way that makes them feel more connected to your products and your brand. 

In this article, we explain what to include in buyer personas and provide a starting point for creating your own personas based on common ecommerce buyer archetypes. 

What is a Consumer Persona? 

Buyer personas (also known as consumer personas) are detailed, fictional representations of your core customers based on real data and market research. Building archetypes of your ideal buyers helps you to understand them well enough that you can engage them and motivate them to purchase. Buyer personas are also beneficial in informing important decisions about your marketing efforts, channels, messaging, website content. and overall big-picture strategy. 

How to Create Consumer Personas 

To begin creating effective buyer personas, you’ll want to outline the demographics and psychographics of each of your ideal customers. Demographic data (age, location, job title, income, etc.) are objective identifiers that can help you determine the needs, wants, and interests of your customers. Psychographic data (goals, pain points, and values) help you to determine their motivations for coming to your site and eliminate the obstacles they may have with purchasing on your website.  

To collect this information, you can refer to online analytics tools or order histories and leverage surveys and interviews to create a well-informed and accurate profile of each customer. You could also draw on what you know about the average ecommerce buyer and use their motivations for coming to a website to inform your own personas.  

Types of Customer Personas 

As an online seller, you need to understand the different types of behavioral archetypes and the tactics, messaging, and content you can use to influence them. By customizing your store to align with these personas, you will be better able to maximize your reach, drive more sales, and boost customer engagement.  

Here are seven core personas that you can use to classify your target buyers: 

The Value Hunter 

The value hunter is interested in items that are worth their spending, hoping to secure the best prices and deals on your website to justify their purchase. Get these shoppers interested in your brand by promoting a compelling value proposition that communicates the benefits and worth of your products. Drive the sale by offering a limited coupon, flash sale, or other exclusive website promotions. These offers help create a sense of urgency that motivates the value hunter to buy. 

The Researcher 

Researchers like to take time to learn about your products and their potential benefits. To appeal to these consumers, you’ll want to communicate how your products deliver on your brand promise, answer their questions, and explain how the products can add value to the shoppers’ lives. To help with their decision-making, you could leverage reviews, testimonials, and case studies (if applicable) to build trust and provide valuable social proof. Social proof is a powerful element that can influence shoppers to follow in the footsteps of those providing glowing reviews of your brand. 

The Brand Devotee 

The brand devotee is a loyal promoter of your business. They are deeply familiar with your products, often to the point that they are repeat purchasers and brand ambassadors. Connect to this consumer persona by keeping them engaged with your company and consider ways to keep earning their trust, loyalty, and patronage. Be sure to provide them with an engaging user experience and consider offering perks like a loyalty program to keep them coming back to your website. 

The Social Butterfly 

You can think of the social butterfly as a social media influencer who is interested in providing value and offering their knowledge to their family and friends. Make it easy for them to influence their network by personalizing product recommendations and providing easy tools for social sharing and discovery. 

The Replenisher 

The replenisher is your company’s avid repeat customer who highly values your product and comes back to your website regularly to buy. To retain them, you’ll want to offer a convenient, personalized reordering experience. Consider implementing a subscription service to provide convenience and value and offering free shipping to drive sales. Treat the replenisher like a VIP and make them feel exclusive to maximize their lifetime value for your business.  

The Mobile Shopper 

Always on the go, this consumer persona is in tune with buying things online on their mobile devices. For this reason, they expect a convenient buying process and distraction-free path to purchase. On top of providing a responsive mobile experience, you can leverage local pickup options like click and collect to provide these shoppers with convenience and instant gratification. 

The Gifter 

The gifter is an enthusiastic buyer looking to purchase products for their network of friends and family. In your messaging, you’ll want to focus on the value of your products and how gifting them can provide the gifter with praise, benefits, and savings. The idea is to communicate your product as the best gift for their needs. Make it easy for the gifter to buy with gift guides, product categories, promotions, and gifting services. 

Making Your Personas Work For You 

Creating consumer personas is an effective way to better engage your buyers, understand their needs, and motivate them to purchase. After you develop your buyer personas, the next step is to extend your reach and communicate with these personas through the right marketing channels. Learn how you can create an effective marketing engine to reach your buyers.