How to Predict and Analyze Your Customers’ Buying Patterns

By adecker@hubspot.com (Allie Decker)

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).

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: