Consumer Behaviour and Recommendation Engine
Consumer buying behaviour is influenced by four main factors: cultural, social, personal and psychological. Cultural factors include the consumer’s culture, subculture, and social class. These factors are often embedded in our values and decision-making processes.
Social factors include family, roles, status and groups. This describes the direct or indirect external influence of others on our purchasing decisions. Personal factors include variables such as age and life cycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality and self concept.
Factors influencing Buyers Behaviour:
Marketing Factors:
Each element of the market mix – product, pricing, promotion and place has the potential to affect the buying process at various stages.
Personal Factors:
The personal factors of a consumer which may affect the buying decisions includes: Age Factor, Gender, Education, Income Level, Status’ in the Society and Other Personal Factors
Psychological Factors:
Psychological factors includes Learning information, Attitude towards brand or products, Motive, Perception/Impression and beliefs
Situational Influence:
Major situational influences include the physical surroundings, social surroundings, time, the nature of the task, and monetary moods and conditions..
Social Factors:
The social factors such as reference groups, family and social status affects the buying behaviour.
Cultural Factors:
Culture includes race and religion, tradition, caste, moral values, etc. Culture also include sub-cultures such as sub-caste, religious Sects, language, etc.
With ever growing product option availability and online option to order/purchase almost anything over the internet, it is only right to figure out the best way to attract, offer and reach consumers in the most personalised way possible. Every consumer has different pattern of choices set on all the influencing factors which affects his purchasing process. But how will a business/seller will know how to place their product correctly to generate more revenue or how to attract more consumers with their uncertain thinking pattern when it comes to make a purchase? Well, this is where a recommendation system can help a company/seller.
When a recommendation system is built in a seller’s website, it uses data to recommend products to consumers. It is built in a way that it understands the preferences, past decisions, and characteristics of consumers/users and products using data collected about their interactions. These include impressions, clicks, likes, and purchases. It can lead consumers to any product or service that interests them, from books and videos to health and clothing choices, saving browsing time for consumers, showing them more result of their interest and so, increasing the chances of sale and ultimately more revenue generation for the seller.
