Shoppers...

Broad categories of customers (with acknowledgments to Messrs. A.C. Nielsen and Mintel)

• Social shoppers
• Take pleasure in shopping and enjoy visiting stores.
• It's an opportunity to get out of the house, or office, and to meet people.
• Experimenters
• The first to try new things and are very happy to do so.
• They generally have a house full of the latest gadgets.
• Convenience shoppers
• Live in a state of 'frenzied coping' and suffer from time pressure.
• Shopping is generally a chore.
• The stereotype is the busy parent who has to shop on the way from school with children in tow.
• Habit-bound 'die-hards'
• Like continuity and prefer traditional values and ways of doing things.
• They prefer not to experiment and will wait for technology to become mainstream before adopting it.
• Value shoppers ('mercenaries')
• Respond to any marketplace that can offer the same goods at a lower price.
• However, service and quality are still important since this forms part of the value of a product or service.
• Ethical shoppers
• Ethics are their main criteria for shopping decisions.
• They may buy from any source and at a slightly higher price if it offers a better ethical deal (such as a fairer share to the original producer).