O Customer - what is this?

The term “customer” is very old in meaning. It can be supposed that it comes from time when first stores have appeared.

Word customer derives from “custom”, the synonym of “habit”. One great dictionary defines customer as “someone who frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods there, and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her “custom,” meaning expected purchases in the future.” So, as in the past in order to be a customer the person ought to visit a store, in our days the meaning of this term enlarged. O-customer or online customer is the same customer, but difference is that he/she practices to buy products from an online provider.

Fact that you are visitor of our site you has already become a potential o-customer. As the humanity has the habit to make one self conspicuous, day after day the number of o-customers is growing.

Is there any difference between ordinary and o-customer?

As a minimum, there is one difference: o-customers buy products at much cheaper. As main “property” of customer is the purchase, online shopping is regarded as the main technique to economize your money. It is not hard to become an o-customer; it is more harder not ignore this phenomenon, because the prerogatives that offers online shopping impress.

Most online stores are obsessed to attract new customers and this is certainly necessary, but the focus really should be on clients who currently are your old customers. To better understand the challenge of building customer loyalty, we can break down shoppers into five types:

Loyal O Customers: They represent no more than 20 percent of your customer base, but make up more than 50 percent of our sales. Naturally, we need to be communicating with these customers on a regular basis by telephone, mail, email, etc.

Discount O Customers: They buy in your shop frequently, but make their decisions based on the size of your markdowns. However they can often wind up costing you money because they are more inclined to return product.

Impulse O Customers: They do not have buying a particular item at the top of their “To Do” list, but come into the online store on a whim. They will purchase what seems good at the time.

Need-Based O Customers: They have a specific intention to buy a particular type of item. When these customers enter the store, they will look to see if they can have that need filled quickly. If not, they will leave right away.

Wandering O Customers: They have no specific need or desire in mind when they come into the store. For many online stores, this is the largest segment in terms of traffic, at the same time; they make up the smallest percentage of sales.

If you want to grow your business, you need to focus your effort on the loyal customers, and merchandise your store to leverage the impulse shoppers. The other three types of customers do represent a segment of your business, but they can also cause you to misdirect you resources if you put too much emphasis on them.