Terms

Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer buying behavior refers to the decisions and actions people undertake to purchase, use, and dispose of products and services for personal consumption. This field of study examines the entire decision-making process, including the psychological, social, and personal factors that motivate a consumer's choices.

Factors Influencing Consumer Buying Behavior

A consumer's final purchase decision is not made in a vacuum. It's the culmination of numerous internal and external influences that shape their perceptions and priorities. Understanding these key drivers helps businesses tailor their strategies to better meet customer needs.

  • Psychological: A person's underlying motivations, perceptions, and attitudes toward a product.
  • Social: Influence from an individual's family, friends, and reference groups.
  • Cultural: The shared values, norms, and customs of a society or community.
  • Personal: Individual characteristics like age, income, lifestyle, and personality.
  • Marketing: How a company's advertising, pricing, and brand messaging shape decisions.

Types of Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumer buying behavior is often categorized based on the level of customer involvement and the perceived differences between brands. These behaviors range from thoughtful, research-intensive decisions to routine, everyday purchases.

  • Complex: High-involvement decisions for expensive, infrequently purchased items requiring extensive research.
  • Dissonance-reducing: High-involvement purchases where consumers see little difference between brands, causing potential post-purchase regret.
  • Habitual: Low-involvement, routine purchases made with little conscious thought or brand consideration.
  • Variety-seeking: Low-involvement purchases where consumers switch brands simply for the sake of novelty.

Consumer Buying Behavior vs. Consumer Decision-Making Process

While related, these two concepts offer different lenses through which to analyze customer actions.

  • Consumer Buying Behavior: This is a broad concept covering the full spectrum of actions and influences related to purchasing. It provides a holistic view of market trends and is ideal for segmenting audiences or developing new products. Its disadvantage is its complexity, as many influencing factors are uncontrollable.
  • Consumer Decision-Making Process: This refers to the specific, sequential stages a consumer follows to make a purchase. It offers a structured framework for optimizing the sales funnel, especially for high-involvement products. However, it may oversimplify real-world behavior, which can be emotional or habitual.

The Consumer Decision-Making Process

This is how you typically move from identifying a need to making a final purchase.

  1. Recognize a problem or need that requires a solution.
  2. Search for information from various sources to learn about potential options.
  3. Evaluate the alternatives based on criteria like price, quality, and brand reputation.
  4. Make the final purchase decision and choose a product or service.
  5. Assess your satisfaction with the purchase, which influences future buying behavior.

Trends in Consumer Buying Behavior

The digital landscape has fundamentally altered how consumers shop. People now expect personalized experiences and conduct extensive online research before buying. This has pushed businesses to adopt data-driven strategies to meet evolving demands.

Recent global events have also caused a significant shift in consumer priorities. Many now prioritize brands that align with their personal values, focusing on aspects like self-care and social connection. This has led to a greater demand for authenticity and purpose-driven products.

Frequently Asked Questions about Consumer Buying Behavior

How does B2B buying behavior differ from B2C?

B2B decisions are more rational, involving multiple stakeholders and focusing on ROI within a longer sales cycle. B2C behavior is often more emotional and individual-driven, influenced by personal factors and brand messaging in a much shorter timeframe.

What is the most effective way to influence consumer behavior?

The best approach combines understanding your audience's psychological drivers with personalized marketing. Consistently delivering value and building trust through authentic brand messaging is key to shaping purchasing decisions over time.

How can we track and measure consumer buying behavior?

Use a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Analyze sales data and web analytics for hard numbers, and supplement this with customer surveys, focus groups, and social listening to understand the "why" behind their actions and identify emerging trends.

Other terms

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Lead Qualification Process

The lead qualification process is how you determine which prospects are most likely to become customers by evaluating them against specific criteria.

Lead Qualification Process

Data Management Platform

A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a software that collects and organizes audience data from various sources for targeted marketing efforts.

Data Management Platform

Below the Line

Learn about below the line, including key strategies for below the line marketing, & distinguishing above and below the line tactics.

Below the Line

Predictive Lead Generation

Predictive lead generation uses data and AI to find prospects most likely to buy, helping teams focus their efforts on high-value leads.

Predictive Lead Generation

Drip Campaign

A drip campaign is a series of automated messages sent to prospects or customers over time to nurture leads and drive engagement.

Drip Campaign

Logo Retention

Logo retention is a key B2B metric that measures a company's ability to retain its customers, or 'logos,' over a specific period.

Logo Retention

DevOps

DevOps is a culture and set of practices that merges software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten development cycles.

DevOps

Spiff

A spiff is a short-term sales incentive, often a cash bonus, paid directly to a salesperson for selling a specific product or service.

Spiff

Email Verification

Email verification is the process of confirming that an email address is valid and deliverable, which helps improve campaign performance.

Email Verification

Marketing Play

A marketing play is a repeatable tactic used to achieve a specific marketing goal, like generating leads or driving engagement.

Marketing Play

Value-Added Reseller

A Value-Added Reseller (VAR) is a company that adds features or services to an existing product, then resells it as an integrated solution.

Value-Added Reseller

Smile and Dial

"Smile and dial" is a high-volume sales tactic where reps make numerous cold calls from a list, often with little to no prior research.

Smile and Dial

Account-Based Sales

Account-Based Sales (ABS) is a focused B2B strategy where sales and marketing teams treat high-value accounts as individual markets of one.

Account-Based Sales

Signaling

Signaling is using credible actions to convey information about quality or intent to a less-informed party, effectively building trust.

Signaling

Event Tracking

Event tracking is the method of collecting data on specific user actions, or 'events,' on a website or app, such as clicks or downloads.

Event Tracking

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Segmentation Analysis

Segmentation analysis is the process of dividing a broad market into smaller, distinct groups of consumers with similar needs or characteristics.

Segmentation Analysis

Account-Based Marketing Benchmarks

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) benchmarks are key metrics used to measure the performance and success of your targeted account strategies.

Account-Based Marketing Benchmarks

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a digital strategy where businesses send targeted emails to prospects and customers to build relationships and drive sales.

Email Marketing

SAM

Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) is the portion of the market your business can realistically serve with its current products and sales channels.

SAM

End of Day

End of Day (EOD) refers to the close of business hours. It's a common deadline for tasks and reports to be completed before the workday ends.

End of Day

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel.

Lead Nurturing

SDK

A Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of tools that allows developers to create applications for a specific software package or platform.

SDK

Direct Mail

Direct mail is a marketing method where businesses send physical promotional materials directly to potential customers' mailboxes.

Direct Mail

Product-Led Growth

Product-Led Growth (PLG) is a business strategy where the product itself drives user acquisition, conversion, and expansion.

Product-Led Growth

Discount Strategies

Discount strategies are pricing tactics used to attract customers and boost sales by temporarily reducing the price of products or services.

Discount Strategies

Account-Based Everything

Account-Based Everything (ABE) is a strategy aligning sales, marketing, and success teams to focus on a specific set of high-value accounts.

Account-Based Everything

Brand Awareness

Learn about brand awareness, including understanding its importance, building an effective strategy, key metrics to track, & examples in the real world.

Brand Awareness

B2B Demand Generation

Learn about B2B demand generation, including strategies for effective B2B demand generation, & key components of a demand generation program.

B2B Demand Generation

User Interaction

User interaction is any action a user takes within a digital interface, like clicking a button, scrolling a page, or filling out a form.

User Interaction

Omnichannel Sales

Omnichannel sales is a strategy that integrates all physical and digital sales channels to create a seamless, unified customer experience.

Omnichannel Sales

CPM

CPM, or Cost Per Mille, is a key advertising metric. It's the cost an advertiser pays for one thousand views or impressions of a single ad.

CPM

Dark Social

Dark social is the sharing of content through private channels like messaging apps or email. This traffic is hard to track as it lacks referral data.

Dark Social

Infrastructure as a Service

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing service that offers essential compute, storage, and networking resources on-demand.

Infrastructure as a Service

Account-Based Marketing Software

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) software helps teams coordinate personalized marketing and sales efforts to land high-value customer accounts.

Account-Based Marketing Software

Open Rate

The open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened an email. It's a primary indicator of a subject line's effectiveness.

Open Rate

Application Performance Management

Application Performance Management (APM) monitors and manages an application's performance, availability, and the experience of its end-users.

Application Performance Management

B2B Buyer Intent Data

Learn about B2B buyer intent data, including sources and types of buyer intent data, & key benefits of leveraging buyer intent data.

B2B Buyer Intent Data

Data Privacy

Data privacy is an individual's right to control their personal information, including how it's collected, processed, stored, and shared.

Data Privacy

Hybrid Sales Model

A hybrid sales model blends traditional and digital sales methods to engage customers across multiple channels and buying preferences.

Hybrid Sales Model

Champion/Challenger Test

A Champion/Challenger test pits a new 'challenger' against the current best-performing 'champion' to see which one performs better.

Champion/Challenger Test

B2B Intent Data Providers

Learn about B2B intent data providers, including evaluating intent data quality, leveraging intent data for growth, & B2B intent data: key providers comparison.

B2B Intent Data Providers

Triggers

Triggers are predefined conditions that, when met, automatically launch a workflow or action, ensuring timely and relevant outreach.

Triggers

Stress Testing

Stress testing is a type of software testing that determines a system's robustness by pushing it beyond its normal operational capacity.

Stress Testing

Sales Pitch

A sales pitch is a persuasive presentation of a product or service, aimed at convincing a potential customer to make a purchase.

Sales Pitch

Forward Revenue

Forward revenue is the total value of all active, committed contracts that are expected to be recognized as revenue in the future.

Forward Revenue

Tire-Kicker

A tire-kicker is a prospect who shows interest in a product but has no intention of buying, wasting a salesperson's time and resources.

Tire-Kicker

Customer Retention

Customer retention refers to the strategies and activities a company uses to prevent customer churn and encourage them to continue buying.

Customer Retention

Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are fraudulent attempts to trick you into revealing sensitive data like passwords or financial info by posing as a trusted source.

Phishing Attacks

Channel Marketing

Channel marketing is a strategy where a company sells its products or services through third-party partners, like resellers or affiliates.

Channel Marketing

Demand Forecasting

Demand forecasting is the process of predicting future customer demand for a product or service based on historical data and market trends.

Demand Forecasting

Retargeting Marketing

Retargeting marketing is a digital advertising strategy that targets users who have previously interacted with your website or brand online.

Retargeting Marketing

Touches

Touches are the individual interactions you have with a prospect throughout the sales process, from emails and calls to social media messages.

Touches

Digital Sales Room

A Digital Sales Room is a private online space where sellers share all relevant content with buyers to streamline the sales cycle.

Digital Sales Room

Git

Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes in code, allowing developers to collaborate and manage project history effectively.

Git

Marketing Qualified Opportunity

A Marketing Qualified Opportunity (MQO) is a lead vetted by marketing as a genuine sales opportunity, ready for direct sales follow-up.

Marketing Qualified Opportunity

Chatbots

Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.

Chatbots

Generic Keywords

Generic keywords are broad search terms that lack specific details like brand or location. They attract a wide audience with less specific intent.

Generic Keywords

Process Automation

Process automation uses technology to execute recurring tasks or processes, replacing manual effort to cut costs and boost efficiency.

Process Automation

Service Level Agreement

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract defining the level of service between a provider and a client, including metrics and penalties.

Service Level Agreement

Sales Funnel

A sales funnel is a model illustrating the customer's journey from initial awareness to the final purchase, narrowing down leads at each stage.

Sales Funnel

CSS

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the code that styles a website. It controls the colors, fonts, layout, and overall look of a web page.

CSS

D2C

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) is a sales strategy where a brand sells its products directly to end customers, bypassing any third-party retailers.

D2C

Warm Outbound

Warm outbound is a sales strategy for contacting prospects who've shown interest in your brand through prior engagement, like website visits.

Warm Outbound

Sales Key Performance Indicators

Sales Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable metrics used to measure how effectively a sales team is achieving its key objectives.

Sales Key Performance Indicators

Process Builder

Process Builder is a Salesforce automation tool that lets you create 'if/then' business processes with a user-friendly visual interface.

Process Builder

Lead Enrichment Tools

Lead enrichment tools are platforms that automatically add missing data to your leads, like contact info, firmographics, and buying signals.

Lead Enrichment Tools

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic, offering insights into user behavior and marketing effectiveness.

Google Analytics

Branded Keywords

Learn about branded keywords, including identifying your branded keywords, & strategies for optimizing branded keywords.

Branded Keywords

CDP

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is software that gathers and organizes customer data from various touchpoints into a single, unified profile.

CDP

Buying Intent

Buying intent is the collection of online cues and behaviors that signal a prospect is actively researching and moving toward a purchase decision.

Buying Intent

Bottom of the Funnel

Learn about bottom of the funnel, including maximizing conversions at the funnel's end, & strategies for nurturing bottom-funnel leads.

Bottom of the Funnel

Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a cloud model where the provider manages servers, so developers can focus on code without worrying about infrastructure.

Serverless Computing

Ideal Customer Profile

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the perfect, hypothetical company that would get the most value from your product.

Ideal Customer Profile

Data-Driven Marketing

Data-driven marketing uses customer data to inform marketing decisions, optimize campaigns, and deliver personalized experiences to consumers.

Data-Driven Marketing

Technographics

Technographics is data that outlines a company’s technology stack, helping B2B teams identify prospects based on the software and hardware they use.

Technographics

ABM Orchestration

ABM orchestration aligns marketing and sales actions across channels to deliver seamless, personalized experiences to high-value accounts.

ABM Orchestration

Rapport Building

Rapport building is the process of establishing a connection and mutual understanding with someone, creating a foundation of trust and affinity.

Rapport Building

Sales Methodology

A sales methodology is the framework that guides how your sales team approaches the entire sales process, from prospecting to closing deals.

Sales Methodology

Email Engagement

Email engagement measures how your audience interacts with your emails. It includes key actions like opens, clicks, replies, and forwards.

Email Engagement

Business Process Management

Learn about business process management, including benefits of implementing BPM, steps to effective BPM, common BPM mistakes to avoid, & BPM tools and software.

Business Process Management

CRM Enrichment

CRM enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to make them more complete and accurate.

CRM Enrichment

A/B Testing

A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of something, like a webpage or email, to determine which one performs better with your audience.

A/B Testing

Business Intelligence In Marketing

Learn about business intelligence in marketing, including the role of data in marketing BI, key components of marketing BI, & marketing BI vs. market research.

Business Intelligence In Marketing

End of Quarter

“End of Quarter” (EOQ) refers to the final weeks of a business quarter when sales teams rush to meet quotas, often leading to a flurry of deals.

End of Quarter

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless, unified customer experience by integrating a company's various communication and sales channels.

Omnichannel Marketing

Targeted Marketing

Targeted marketing focuses on specific consumer groups whose needs align with your product, allowing for more personalized and effective messaging.

Targeted Marketing

Regression Testing

Regression testing ensures that new code changes don’t negatively impact existing features. It's a key step to maintain software quality after updates.

Regression Testing

B2C2B

Learn about B2C2B, including how B2C2B transforms sales, key strategies for B2C2B success, & differences between B2C2B and B2B2C.

B2C2B

Persona

A persona is a semi-fictional profile of your ideal customer, based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

Persona

Single Page Applications

A Single Page Application (SPA) is a web app that interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current page rather than loading new pages.

Single Page Applications

B2B Data Platform

Learn about B2B data platform, including key benefits of B2B data platforms, choosing the right B2B data platform, challenges in implementing B2B data platforms.

B2B Data Platform

MOFU

MOFU, or Middle of the Funnel, is the crucial evaluation stage in the buyer's journey where leads compare solutions to their known problem.

MOFU

Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis, or opinion mining, automatically determines the emotional tone behind text—whether it's positive, negative, or neutral.

Sentiment Analysis

Sales Metrics

Sales metrics are quantifiable data points that track and measure a sales team's performance against specific goals and objectives.

Sales Metrics

Opportunity Management

Opportunity management is the process of tracking potential sales from first contact to a closed deal, helping teams prioritize and win more.

Opportunity Management

Business Continuity

Learn about business continuity, including understanding key components, steps to ensure continuity, common challenges, & best practices.

Business Continuity

Account-Based Sales Development

Account-Based Sales Development (ABSD) is a focused strategy where SDRs target key stakeholders within specific, high-value accounts.

Account-Based Sales Development

Subscription Models

Subscription models are a business strategy where customers pay a recurring fee at regular intervals for access to a product or service.

Subscription Models

Shipping Solutions

Shipping solutions are services or software that streamline the logistics of getting products to customers, from label printing to final delivery.

Shipping Solutions