Routine purchases, impulse purchases or with a long decision-making process. Not all purchases are made in the same way and in order to guarantee the best experience for the users, it is necessary to adapt to them and offer what they need at all times.
There is no doubt that Spanish ecommerce is booming, overcoming 8,900 million euros in the first quarter of 2018 and increasing 32.8% over the previous period. But which are the products preferred by consumers? What kind of decisions do they make to buy them? We’ll tell you all about it below.
According to data from Statista, in the last year travel and entertainment products have been the preferred choice of online consumers, as 72% of those surveyed said that they had purchased this type of products during 2017. It is not surprising, therefore, that the activity branches with the highest percentage of turnover are travel agencies and tour operators, along with air transport. These sectors with the highest volume of products sold are closely followed by the fashion sector, with 62% and those related to telecommunications, footwear, accessories, appliances, technology, health and beauty.
Beyond knowing what is bought, it is interesting to know how is it bought, as there are common characteristics for different sectors. We can differentiate three types of purchase taking into account the decisive process for making them: routine purchases, impulse purchases and those that involve a long decision-making process.
- The routine purchase is made by habit and does not require a big economic effort, as, for example, always buying the same brand of coffee for breakfast. In order to attract this type of purchase, it is necessary to create customer loyalty through the quality of the products, a good after-sales service or a payment system that facilitates recurring purchases.
- Impulse purchases are those that the consumers have not planned to make and arise by the appearance of an incentive that encourages them to add an additional breakfast to the trip they were already booking or buy some earrings suggested by the page where they were buying a shirt. This type of purchases can be achieved through advertisements, promotions or personalizing the products that are shown to the customer. For these actions to be effective, the purchase must be made quickly and easily, so that the customer does not leave the cart and finish the process as soon as possible. Therefore, it is essential to have a checkout process that favors the invisible payment.
- Finally, we find purchases with a long decision process. They tend to occur in products with a high purchase price, which sometimes represent a significant investment for the consumer and therefore require consideration and comparison of options. In this case, it is important that the brands have a positive perception and a quality service before and after the purchase, because today the consumer has great decision-making power and the ability to buy and check which brand offers the best alternative. In addition, one of the important factors will be personalization, because the customers will choose the product or service that best suits their needs. Some payment gateways offer maximum customization, through a system that shows the customer one payment method or another depending on their socio-demographic characteristics, their purchases made in the past, etc.
The multichannel presence and the establishment of a clear purchasing strategy is essential for business. From the Communication Department of Sipay Plus, the Spanish payment gateway, they point out that «it is necessary to differentiate the purchasing strategy for the different channels, type of consumers and type of purchase they carry out. Knowing the different habits and experiences that each consumer wants to live in each moment, facilitates a better personalization throughout the buying process, including the time of payment, which will guide the efforts of brands in the best direction”.
