How to Predict and Analyze Your Customers’ Buying Patterns

 Buyers don't think like marketers or salespeople. Anyone who works in these departments can admit that. More importantly, buyers don't think like each other either.

Each consumer follows their own set of buying patterns, whether they recognize it or not. For instance, someone who walks to work every morning may grab a coffee from the Starbucks on the corner — to them, that's part of their routine. To Starbucks, that's an established buying pattern.

But if this person happened to move neighborhoods, they’d likely establish a new routine (and buying pattern

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Buying patterns are important to recognize, analyze, and measure because they help businesses better understand and potentially expand their target audience. Buying patterns also fall in step with the customer journey, although they connect more with the psychology and motivations behind each stage.

In this post, we are going to discuss buying patterns and how to predict those of your customers.

What are buying patterns?

Buying patterns refer to the why and how behind consumer purchase decisions. They are habits and routines that consumers establish through the products and services they buy.

Buying patterns are defined by the frequency, timing, quantity, etc. of said purchases.

These patterns are determined by factors such as:

• Where someone lives
• Where they work
• How much money they make
• What they enjoy and prefer
• What their friends and family recommend
• What their goals and motivations are
• The price of the product or service they're interested in (and any active sales or discounts)
• Any product displays
• The necessity of the product or service
• Festivals, holidays, rituals, or celebrations

For example, let’s say the customer mentioned in the introduction is named Robert. Robert’s coffee-buying pattern is one coffee every weekday morning, and this pattern is primarily influenced by where he lives and what he likes to drink.

Therefore, when Robert moves neighborhoods, he’ll likely choose a new morning routine (and establish a new buying pattern) that allows him to still snag that morning coffee.

So, in this case, why should Starbucks care?

Well, by understanding Robert’s buying pattern, Starbucks could better understand the buyer persona he represents, predict in-store traffic, and analyze how they could better market their products to similar customers.

Predicting Customer Buying Patterns

Many, many things influence a customer’s buying behavior and patterns. In the case above, Robert’s neighborhood and coffee cravings influenced his daily Starbucks routine, but that’s just one example of his buying patterns. Robert also has established buying patterns for his groceries, gym usage, clothing purchases, and more.

These types of purchases fall into four consumer behavior categories:

1. Routine purchases (e.g. weekly grocery shopping)
2. Limited decision-making purchases (e.g. a new salon recommended by a friend)
3. Extensive decision-making purchases (e.g. a new car)
4. Impulse purchases (e.g. a pack of gum at the register)

Buying patterns are present in all of these types of consumer behavior, but they’re most prevalent and predictable through routine purchases. (We’ll dive more into these types and examples in the following section.)

Marketers at companies in all these industries work to uncover and understand the buying patterns of their customers. Most buying patterns are established through the typical buyer journey: awareness, consideration, and decision.

When a pattern is established, however, the buyer then no longer has to become aware of their problem and consider a solution — they simply repeat the decision stage over and over, thus creating the pattern.

So, how can marketers and salespeople uncover the current buying patterns of their customers? The most straightforward way is to ask. Once you set a baseline of customer behavior and expectations, you can then start to predict their patterns — and those of similar shoppers.

Here are some questions to ask in a customer survey or focus group:

• Why did you first purchase [product or service]?
• Who in your household decided to purchase [product or service]? Does this person make all the buying decisions?
• Where do you go when looking for [product or service]?
• How long does it take to decide to buy [product or service]?
• Do you buy other [products or services]? Why?
• What’s your budget for [product or service]?
• How far would you travel to buy [product or service]?

These questions help you understand the why and how behind your customer purchase decisions, thus uncovering their buying pattern as it relates to your product or service.

The most important takeaway about buying patterns is that they’re ever-changing. Not only do they differ between your customers and buyer personas, but they may also change as an individual’s life changes — as we saw above with Robert.

Customer Buying Pattern Examples

In the previous section, I outlined the four main types of consumer behavior. Below, I’ll unpack an example of a customer buying pattern for each of the types of consumer behaviors.