Knowing Your customers “Research cycle”

Have you ever wondered how customers end up finding your website and buying your products?
The typical simplistic and even naive answer is “Google”. But maybe you’re right, but if your product or service is a medium to high involvement purchase, then you are wrong… well partially.
Other than certain impulse buys, today’s customers are educated researchers. The higher the involvement in the purchase, the more important a purchase is, the longer and more complex the research cycle is going to be and the more stages your customer will go through.

So what is the customer research cycle?

The online customer research cycle are the stages a customer goes through to find the product or service they want to buy. More specifically, it is the types and number of websites that will lead them to their final purchase. The cycle includes different clusters of websites, different types of information research at different stages in the cycle. This can be divided 3 key phases with varying lengths.

Wow, seems complex; but it really isn’t. This is essential at building your online marketing mix and setting your distribution strategy.

Lets take a simple retail example, a flat screen TV.
Firstly, a New flat screen TV is no small purchase, it is a medium to high involvement purchase as it is expensive and is not easily changed if the purchase is the wrong one.

The 3 stages a potential consumer would go through would be:

1- TV specification research
2- Brand short listing
3- Price search per Brand shortlisted
3*- (optional) Retailer selection as for some price isn’t everything
= Purchase