Using Customer Types to Tailor the Customer Buying Experience

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
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Customer Types are customer segmentation tools used to group customers with similar characteristics. Customer Types allow merchants to customize the shopping experience by adjusting the product pricing, product visibility, and billing options customers have access to during their shopping process. Customer Types also allow merchants to tailor future email campaigns, promotions, and other marketing campaigns to existing customers, increasing the likelihood of conversion. Customer Types are particularly effective for businesses with:

Wholesale Customers – Imagine you are a wholesaler in need of replenishing the inventory of a particular item. You want your supplier to provide you with the fastest and easiest way to get the item you need with the least amount of hassle. Customer Types allow specific customers to access the B2B store where they can log in see the products that are applicable to them, the discounted or customer based price associated with their account, and the preferred billing option they wish to pay through.   

Sales Reps – You are a manufacturer or distributor who utilizes sales representatives in your sales process. Your sales rep can tailor the products, pricing, and billing options their clients see when they log into your B2B store by assigning specific discounts and product pricing to various customer types.

Exclusive / Low Inventory Products – You are a winery who needs to allocate your wine.  Use customer types to allocate/limit the amount of wine that can be purchased by customers of specified types over a given time period. Or maybe you sell jewelry, antique, or other one-of-a-kind items that are in high demand. Customer Types can be used to limit and control who and how many items customers can purchase at one time.

Club / Membership items with Recurring Shipments – When customers sign up for, or purchase a club or membership item they can be automatically associated with a specific customer type. These customer type groupings make it very easy for merchants to associate specific customers with a particular club or item that will be shipped on a recurring basis. Customer Types also determine which set of customers are included in the processing recurring / monthly shipments with Nexternal’s Bulk Re-Order capabilities.

Customer Types have been a key component of the Nexternal’s eCommerce platform since the beginning. It is a tool that every eCommerce merchant should have access to.

Bobby Cintolo is a Senior Account Executive at Nexternal. Bobby is passionate about wine and he specializes in helping merchants increase their brand awareness using social media and mobile marketing tools.