E-COMMERCE
Capturing The Soul Of The Online Consumer
By Martin Muli
Businesses all over the world are shifting their operations towards a customer centric strategy that defines the customer as the core pillar of success . This shift towards customer obsession is accelerated by digital transformation that has led to the adoption of advanced customer relationship management tools and other vibrant platforms that have given brands full visibility of the customer journey map .
According to statistics appearing on Forbes , digital transformation and a focus on customer experience can generate a 20- 30 % increase in customer satisfaction and economic gains of 20-50 %.
Understand different generations of consumers
Online businesses will attract different generations of consumers that exhibit extreme shopping patterns driven by micro and macro environmental activities that took place in their generation . Baby Boomers born between 1946-1964 enjoyed immense economic prosperity , post-world war 11 peace . Kenyans were involved in a unstable political environment while fighting for independence . They only use technology when it is necessary and may not spend a lot of time on different digital channels .
Generation X born between 1965-1980 were influenced by campaigns to mainstream capitalism and consumerism culture . They are ambitious and adopt technology very easily as a tool to stay connected with their aging parents and tech savvy children .
Generation Y or Millennials were born between 1981-1996 when technology and entrepreneurship was becoming a global phenomenon . They are a global generation since they share the same values in many countries thanks to globalization and their connection through the Internet .
Generation Z were born between 1997- 2010 when digital was mainstream , internet and mobile phones were readily available . They spend a lot of time on digital platforms , self-taught through tutorials and
“
I encourage teams to have imaginary photo of the persona hanging on a boardroom wall and even go further and have a seat for the imaginary customer . Ask yourself , what would the customer say about your creatives , Marketing programs , website customer journey maps and key touchpoints ? have a real time access to global news and entertainment .
Identify Target Customer
From all these generations of consumers , it is important to identify a target market that consists of consumers who exhibit similar characteristics like age , income , geographical location etc . It is also possible to have more than one target customer group segmented as primary , secondary or even tertiary customer segments . The primary customer is the core target of any business where more resources are allocated while the rest may get limited attention .
For the purposes of this article and better understanding , we will have the millennials as our primary target customer .
Develop Customer persona
Now that we know our primary target customer is a millennial , we need to go deeper and create a persona that befits our target customer . Customer persona is a fictional profile that represents a target customer . You can also create negative persona to represent those you do not want as a customer .
Customer persona should be a vivid description that profiles the characteristics of the target customer . Let us name our Persona Niki , she is 34 years old , a University of Nairobi bachelor of Commerce graduate , currently working at eyeballs as a business account manager earning USD 30,000 PA . She lives at South C and is a single mother of two children . She loves to travel , hangout
94 MAL53 / 23 ISSUE