Surely most people are now using the internet in some shape or form, so making generalisations about people who use the internet is like making generalisations about people who drink water. A broad brush statement like ‘internet consumers prefer this’ or ‘online shoppers do that’, is rather like saying that all women like pink. There are literally so many online users out there, that there will literally be some that do most things, just as there are some women who like pink, some women who like red, some women who prefer blue and even some who are colour blind!
Some internet consumers use the web for research. Some buy online to obtain the best price. Some use the internet to find things that they can’t find local to them. Some use the web for convenience and so on.
Let’s say you want the latest Corinne Bailey Rae album. Do you get into your car, go down town and buy the CD from WH Smith, buy online from Amazon in a fraction of the time for less but have to wait 2-3 days for delivery, or download it for even less from iTunes and be listening to it before you’d even been able to park your car in the first alternative. Tricky one. So that’s ‘the convenience of the internet’ option.
You’re not sleeping well at night and waking up with a bad back, so decide you need a new bed. Do you go to the nearest shop and buy the first one you see, trail around all the bed shops in the area, testing them out and comparing prices, or browse the internet for recommendations and guidance. Then find the best price from all the available sellers for that particular bed. And then, to be extra sure, find out the nearest stockist and test out just how good this bed, haggle with the shop assistant before buying the best price bed you could obtain, either online or offline. That’s the ‘using the internet for research’ option.
You want to try this amazing new natural soap that you’ve heard removes strong odours naturally using the wonder mineral Zeolite but you can’t get it in your local Boots the Chemist or anywhere for that matter. Do you drive to your nearest stockist who may or may not be 200 miles away or search the internet to find an online store that will deliver your wonder soap the next day? That’s the ‘using the internet to find things that you can’t find locally’ option.
You want the latest Nokia N95 that you’ve see in the high street and your friend’s got but want to find the best deal. Do you take what’s on offer at your local providers shop or compare the prices of the handsets, tariffs and offers from all the online mobile providers to get the best deal? That’s 'using the internet for comparison shopping'.
So we’ve just identified 4 different behaviour patterns of how people use the internet and, to be honest, I use them all. I’m sure you do too. And, as I’m sure you realise, we’ve only just started to explore how individual people use the internet. You can’t say people just use the internet for bargain hunting, or for convenience, or for research or whatever.
What you can do, however, is identify areas where you, as a business, can score strongly with consumers, where you can demonstrate that your product and service satisfies a particular want, need or desire for a particular group of individuals, where what you have, what you do with it, how you sell it and so on is valued by consumers more that the offer of your competitors. Once you have done that and found that particular group of individuals your business will fly...
Peter van Zelst is the Principle of Inovative Internet Marketing, a practical online marketing company. If you want practical help to make your business or e-commerce venture fly visit http://www.innovative-internet-marketing.com/
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