Pattern Analysis for Customer Behavior

This study focuses on the pattern analysis of customer behavior and its impact on buying decisions. It explores the factors that influence customer buying patterns and discusses the implications for businesses. The study includes literature reviews and analysis on customer behavior patterns.

Running head: PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
Introduction
The study is a literature review concerning the pattern analysis of customer behavior. In
recent times customers are more likely to engage in rational buying. Customers have become
more brand conscious and focused towards quality and longevity of the products they buy.
Customer buying patterns have greatly changed from the last decades. It is important to note that
the customers of the present generation have much more choices that they used to in the past.
Studies reveal that the large number of choices have contributed towards customers making
smarter choices. An essential problem becomes finding just how many factors affect buying
behaviors of the customers. People are buying more products without considering their ethical
implications that range from environmental to human rights. The patterns of customer behavior
are changing across the world. The essential focus is to review and analyze the current patterns
of buyer behavior and gather implications in regards to which are the factors that actually tend to
affect buyer behavior patterns the most. The relevance, effects and limitations of the previous
literatures are evaluated and discussed.
Critique
According to Kooti et al. (2016) customer buying behavior patterns are greatly linked to
the social contacts that are kept by the customer. This was found to be similar in online shopping
as well as normal offline shopping tendencies of the buyers. The authors however, have focused
mainly on e-commerce websites in their study. Hence majority of the data gathered have been
measured on the basis of the online behaviors of the customers. However, the demographic
patterns that the study has found does provide essential insights into the buying patterns of the
customers. The findings suggested that most of the purchases were made on the first days of the
week. Moreover, the findings distinguish between periodical purchases and frequent purchases.
It was found that the practical value of products are more important for men than the detailed
description of the products. Women prefer the physical experience of products despite their
frequent usage of the e-commerce sites. The role of social media was found to be a huge factor
that led to the decision making of the customers in relation to product choices. The other
important factors were found to be access to websites, potential for purchase and product

2PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
information gathering. However, the impact of the websites in influencing the customers were
not vividly described though the work. An important limitation was also the fact that only those
online purchases were recorded when confirmation emails were sent.
Butt (2016) in his study have provided a positive picture of customer buying patterns in
the current market situations. The work focuses on the increase in ethical consumerism among
the customers. The consumers according to the study are increasingly buying products from
organizations that are known to participate more in Corporate Social Responsibility functions.
The study utilized survey questions to understand whether or not people will give preference to
companies that have a known reputation for undertaking CSR activities. The respondents
provided answers that pointed to the fact that people are getting more aware of the activities of
social responsibilities that are being conducted by the manufacturers of commodities. The study
suggested that people are becoming more aware of the ethical standards of buying. The pattern
suggested that the perceived notions of the CSR activities of the companies are very important to
induce buyers towards buying the products of the company. The study pointed towards
significant positive changes in favor of ethical consumerism. However, the study is affected by
limitations as the name of the organizations were not revealed to the customers and only their
CSR activities were described. Hence, the knowledge of the brand names could have made an
impact.
The available researches that analyze the buying patterns of the customers rarely relate to
the factors of ethical consumerism. This causes a gap in the understanding of consumer buying
patterns in the context of ethical consumerism. As opined by Ramya and Ali (2016) the factors
that tend to mostly affect consumer buying patterns are cultural, social, personal, economical and
psychological. The study is an essential analysis of the factors that affect consumer buying
behavior and the various sub-factors are analyzed with regards to their potential to affect the
consumer buying behaviors. It is important to note that the findings point towards the major
factors of marketing stimuli and other stimuli. This in turn affects the buyer’s characteristics and
the decision making process identified in the study as the Black box of the buyer. The end result
is the decision of the buyer. The limitation of the research is that it is based entirely on secondary
sources. This limits the perspectives of the views that have been provided. The study points out

3PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
that buyer’s behavior are related to a large number of factors. These factors need to be
considered essentially for implementing ideas to promote ethical consumerism.
Customer buying patterns have been affected by a number of factors that have emerged
over time. The concept of ethical buying for example, is more common now than it has been in
the past. It is important to consider the customer buying patterns in order to form better ideas
about factors that influence customer buying patterns [8]. The existing literatures do not
decisively explain the biggest factors that affect the buying patterns of customers. As a result
only a limited understanding of the factors that affect buying patterns much more than the other
factors can be gathered.
15%
24%
61%
Percentage
Spendthrifts
Conservative
Unconflicted
Figure 1: Percentage of Types of buyers
(Source- As created by the author)
Critical Analysis
The most important questions that were raised by the consulted literatures were which
factors actually affect the buying patterns of consumers online? What are the prospects of ethical
consumerism towards affecting customers? What are the sub-factors that affect the decision
making patters of the buyers? These were the main questions that were explored through the
selected literatures. It is important to understand the different viewpoints of the authors in the
separate literatures. Customers buy what they deem to be the best considering the given time,

4PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
budget and requirement factors. However these are very basic factors that tend to affect buying
decisions. Kooti et al. (2016) focuses on the social contacts and the exact days of the week where
customers buy more and the ways in which customers are affect by online websites. Butt (2016)
on the other hand focuses on the ethical factors that can determine the buying patterns of the
buyers. It is important to note that the analysis of Butt is more futuristic and points to the fact the
ethical buying is a developing factor. On the other hand Ramya and Ali (2016) essentially
focuses on the great number of factors and sub-factors that tend to affect the buying patterns of
the consumers. In essence three types of buyers are identified spendthrifts, conservatives and
unconflicted [4]. This framework can be used in the context of the concerned literatures and the
implications of the same on understanding buyer behavior can be attempted to be found.
Spendthrifts are buyers that can spend more before hitting the highest buying pain. Conservatives
are the people that tend to spend average less before actually hitting their highest spending pain.
Unconflicted are the average spenders. How much people actually spend can be attributed to
actually what they are spending on. The claims of the authors in regards to ethical buying
affecting the buying patterns of the buyers are not complemented by relevant and conclusively
gathered findings [3]. It is found in the literatures that online shopping is greatly affected by the
actual wants of customers at a given point in time when they are placing the order [1]. In the
other sources consulted more preference has been given to the psychological and social factors.
In essence the literatures that were consulted were able to get essential insight of the buyer’s
minds. However, the decisive factors that guide the customer buying patterns have not been
essentially found. It can be said that influence plays a large part in the decision of the buyers.
Several empirical studies have focused on finding the exact reason for the influences that happen
on the buyers. In regards to the ethical considerations, it cannot be said that it influences the
buyers greatly as the buyers are still not considering the ethical factors before they buy the
products [6]. However, ethical buying is a growing factor that is influencing the buyers. It can be
said that the social and economic factors are the ones that most importantly affect the customers
if empirical studies are to be considered. This is because the social influence on the buying
patterns of the consumers are large. The consumers intermix with their friends and families and
the society at the larger level. This causes people to be more inclined towards accepting the
social norms. The social factors are made up of some essential sub factors family or procreation,
reference group and the roles and status. The literatures are not interlinked much however, the

5PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
social factors is more or less common on all the studies. In essence, pattern analysis of the buyers
reveal that despite some of the factors tending towards becoming the larger factors of influence,
buyers are actually affected by a large number of factors when it comes to making buying
decisions [7]. The large number of factors make it very difficult to single out one factor as a
major one. The social, economic, psychological, personal and economic factors are again bound
by time and situation with respect to the amount of impact that they would have on the buyers.
Implications
The implications of the analysis point to the fact that the traditional factors that have
influenced the buyers more are social, psychological and economical. The customers are affected
greatly by the factors and tend to develop understanding of what to buy and why to buy based on
the significant factors. The buyer psychology is affected by a number of factors that tend to be
interrelated. Hence a positive relationship pattern can be drawn with regards to all the factors.
Cultural, social, personal, psychological and economic factors that affect buying patterns are
hence very much interconnected. The factors need to be considered essentially in order to
develop a better understanding of what the customer wants.

6PATTERN ANALYSIS FOR CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR
References
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