In the era of digitalization, digital customer personas assist in making your eCommerce store more relevant to both your customers and the internet. With their help, you can improve your various marketing campaigns, create better ad copies to target your desired audience and ameliorate the problematic elements of the UI. Web designs made with the help of customer personas will also give you the best worth for custom eCommerce development. 

However, to do all this, the knowledge of what customer personas are and how you can create one is required. 

What is a Customer Persona?

A customer persona or buyer persona refers to a fictional character made by a brand after in-depth research of its customers. It basically represents what the typical customer of a brand will look like and helps in anticipating the behavior and actions of customers in response to marketing campaigns and UI/UX design changes. 

Usually, a customer persona is based on both qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research includes interviews of customers, basic conversions, customer support inquiries, etc., and quantitative research includes surveys, industry data and web analytics. 

The following layers will help you filter the research and create an appropriate persona to represent the ideal customers of your brand. 

Part 1: Demographics

Demographics is the most basic layer of eCommerce customer persona. It involves research on age, gender, profession and marital status of your customers. You can collect all such data with the help of web tools like Google Analytics.

How will collecting demographic data help? Let’s assume that the demographic research of a jewellery eCommerce store shows that its majority of customers are working married women aged between 25 and 35. 

Based on this information, the store can launch a 20% off discount offer and target ads to females aged 25-35 on Facebook. Similarly, it can also tie up with an MNC and provide 10% off to all the new brides. In terms of design changes, the store can select the color combination that represents youth and love.

Without demographics, it is difficult to gain basic knowledge about your customers. The various demographic information that you collect can be more or less representative of your customers but a little variation is expected. 

Customer persona demographics include the following data:

• Age
• Gender
• Marital Status
• Profession
• Education
• Location
• Income

Part 2: Journey

Customer journey refers to the stages a customer goes through from the moment he becomes aware of a product till he completes the purchase. There are five stages in the eCommerce customer journey.

Discovery: At this stage, an internet user finds about your product and wants to know more. He visits your store and various sources from where he can collect more information about the product.

Interest: Gradually, the user develops interest in your product as he collects info through various blogs, reviews, ads and becomes a prospect.

Intent: The intent to buy the product in the prospect becomes clear. For example, he may add the product to his cart or wish list and become a lead. 

Purchase: Finally, the lead goes through the checkout stage and purchases the product. This state is also known as the conversion stage as this is where the actual conversion takes place. After the conversion, the lead becomes your customer.

Engagement: Engagement is the last journey of the customer on your website. In this stage, the customer returns to your website, browses products, interacts with your social media handles, reads articles, subscribes to the newsletter and intends to purchase again. 

Part 3: Triggers

A trigger persuades a customer to take an action, such as, search for products online or buy a specific product. By understanding these triggers, you connect with your target audience better and direct them to shop on your website. You can also offer relevant solutions to the major customer pain points. 

There are three types of triggers in marketing:

Internal Trigger: Internal triggers are related to the customer’s thoughts and feelings. For example, status, insecurities, fears, desires, ambitions, etc.

External Trigger: External Trigger relates to the events outside the shopper’s control. For example, exhaustion of grocery supplies, product damages, unprecedented events, medical emergencies, etc.

Seasonal Trigger: Seasonal triggers are related to predictable events that influence buying behavior. For example, birthdays, weddings, parties, holidays, change of seasons, etc.  

Part 4: Mindset

Mindset helps you understand what’s going in the customer’s head. It helps you understand how your customers think, what type of solutions they expect, and what are their priority pain points. When you know the mindset of customers then you can target their specific needs more appropriately. To know the mindset of customers, ask yourself the following questions:  

What type of problems customers might be facing with your products?

What are the expectations of your customers with your brand?

What are the goals and desires customers might want to achieve with your products?  

Part 5: Language

By understanding the language of customers, you can leave a direct impact on their subconscious brains. Every customer segment has its own language and phrases that are unique to its interests, status, feelings and desires. When you use the language of customers in your marketing campaigns, it influences them better and makes a connection between your brand and your customers. It makes you sound more relevant.  You may consider the following attributes to improve your language:

1. Industrial jargon
2. Industrial news and current affairs
3. Metaphors and phrases
4. Customers’ age
5. Cultural references
6. Social media influence

Part 6: Communities

Every customer is related to a group or community, whether knowing or unknowingly. In this group, the customer feels comfortable and safe speaking about his experience with the purchases. For example, a gamer might speak about a newly purchased game in a game center instead of the review section on the manufacturer’s eCommerce site. Similarly, dog owners may talk about the quality of dog collars in a dog park instead of at home or work. By considering these communities in your customer persona, you can understand your customers’ varying expectations and experiences. This can also help you promote your brand in specific communities and prevent reputation crises. 

Conclusion

With the help of aforementioned layers, you can create a multipurpose customer persona for your eCommerce store. These layers might need some research, however, all the efforts you put would be fruitful in the long run.