Retailers Focus on Turning Deal Chasers into Brand Loyalists

There are different types of online shoppers, obviously, but knowing and understanding three key shopper personas identified in recent research has been shown to increase the odds of conversion, as each places a slightly different — yet significant — importance on their particularly checkout needs and expectations.

Surveying over 2,000 U.S. consumers, we found three dominant online shopping personas — deal-chasers, persuadable consumers, and loyal customers — in the study At The Checkout: Deal Chasers Versus Loyal Customers, a PYMNTS and checkout.com collaboration.

For starters, who’s who? What we call deal-chasers are online shoppers who “prioritize getting the best prices over shopping with their favorite merchants.” At the same time, the persuadable consumer “remains loyal to their favorite online merchants while still seeking bargains elsewhere.”

Coveted loyal customers “prioritize shopping with their preferred merchants but are still occasionally willing to seek better deals elsewhere,” the study states.

Sorted by age and income, we discover that fence-sitting persuadables and price-sensitive deal-chasers closely track each other, especially among Gen Zs and those whose earnings are below $50,000 annually, as well as those earning between $50,000 and $100,00 per year.

The study states, “The personas show remarkably even distribution when it comes to income levels, underscoring how these consumer archetypes transcend purchasing power. Deal-chasers comprise 39% of consumers earning more than $100,000 per year and 38% of middle-income ($50,000 to $100,000 per year) and lowest-income (less than $50,000 per year) consumers. The most notable break is that loyal customers are somewhat overrepresented in the highest income bracket, while persuadables are underrepresented.”

Get Your Copy: At The Checkout: Deal Chasers Versus Loyal Customers

Pleasing Personas at the Checkout

The research found that many retailers are failing to deliver the checkout experiences most desired by all three groups. That ends up costing conversions.

Deal-chasers are more likely to be displeased at the checkout but also place less importance on it. Persuadables “fall in the middle in terms of their likelihood to be satisfied with their checkout experiences and the importance they place on these journeys to determine repeat purchases,” while loyal customers are “the most satisfied with their checkout experiences and view them as a more important factor in whether they return to the same merchants.”

A great reason to bring the checkout experience up to snuff is its impact in turning deal-chasers and persuadables into loyal customers who take less time deciding on purchases.

“Loyalists head to the checkout much more quickly, with just 11% indicating they spend at least 24 hours before clicking the buy button,” the study states, while the other two can take 24 hours or more in the consideration phase.

Beyond the obvious appeal of creating loyal customers out of deal-chasers is the finding that the latter tend to spend more, making them a lucrative group to convert.

Per the study, “Deal-chasers may be the least loyal shoppers, but they are the highest spenders. PYMNTS’ research found that they spent $564 on average for their most recent online purchase, far more than loyal shoppers and persuadable consumers, whose latest purchases averaged $393 and $187, respectively.”

See It Now: At The Checkout: Deal Chasers Versus Loyal Customers