5 types of buyers on your online store

Imagine having a local store. When a customer walks in, do you push the same marketing and sales pitch or take a moment to understand what kind of users they are? You do not greet, treat, market, and sell the products to all the customers in the same way. And imagine your online store.

If your offline store sees regulars, window-shoppers, coupon hunters, spec-checkers, and “I need it today” buyers, why does your website greet them all with the same page? There are a hundred types of users visiting your e-commerce site. We’ve grouped them into 5 main personas, so you can design your online store for not just one, but all of them.

Online store for the loyal buyers

The loyal buyers are your repeat customers who consider your e-commerce site as their first choice. They already trust your products, know their sizes/variants, and value a fast, predictable path more than new features. They feel at home on your site and make full use of their personal dashboard to wishlist things, add to cart, and look for offers. They’re the shoppers most likely to reorder, subscribe, and recommend your products to others.

How you can design your store for them:

• Recognize the users on arrival: Swap the hero section of their dashboard from something generic to a welcome back section that has the user’s name.

• Buy again list: Keep a track of what they have ordered and give them a list of where they can buy again. This can save them time searching and browsing, and provide a personalized shopping experience.

• One-tap checkout: Save the shipping addresses, payment details, and other details of the customer that help in fast checkouts

• Intuitive product display: Hide generic “You may also like.” Instead of that, you can show refills, add-ons, and size-true picks that they actually buy.

• Replace discounts with perks: Loyal buyers don’t need constant discounts. Offer perks that feel premium for them. Give them options, such as access to new launches first, free fast shipping, free alterations, extended returns, early drops, limited colors, and more.

Online store for the impulse buyers

Impulse buyers are usually emotion-led, mobile-first shoppers who decide on the first screen. They arrive from social or creator links, skim, pick a variant, and buy what they want. Any blocker in this spontaneous journey can make them lose interest in the product. The page needs to be clear, fast, and trustworthy. Blockers like slow loads, pop-ups over the button, or surprise fees kill the purchase.

How you can design your store for them:

• Keep the match the same: Match the landing page with the ad that brings them in. Land visitors on the exact product/variant they clicked, with the same photo and message. The message match removes doubt and keeps the buying momentum from the ad.

• Show what the users need: The first screen does the job. Show price, size/colour picker, delivery date, returns note, and a sticky “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” CTA.

• Keep the pages fast: Slow pages or blocked buttons are the top reasons quick buyers bounce. Compress images, lazy-load non-essential media, and let the CTA be usable immediately.

• Place trust signals: Reassurance where the click happens reduces hesitation. Place accepted payment icons, “Free 30-day returns,” and a short shipping line beside the price or just above the CTA buttons on the page.

• Use real urgency nudges: Authentic urgency nudges action; fake urgency damages trust and long-term conversion. Low-stock badges and offer end-times must reflect actual inventory and deadlines.

Online store for the analytical buyers

These are deliberate, proof-seeking buyers. They compare options, read specs, check reviews and policies, and only add to cart when they feel you are giving them the right product with the right offers. Trust is very crucial here.

How you can design your store for them:

• Show benefits in the first fold: The users want clarity without scrolling or guessing. Add a short benefits summary next to a tidy specs table.

• Showcase useful reviews: Credibility matters the most to the users. Show average rating, count, and a histogram. Let users filter by recent, with photos, and by use case.

• Show FAQs that close doubts: The analytical buyers have a lot of questions before they buy. This also makes them chat with your support team for general answers, but this is time-consuming. Answer sizing, compatibility, installation, and care in two-line replies.

• Assurance: Apart from convincing the buyers that the product is good, you need to assure them that the shipping and delivery will be smooth. Simple assurances like free delivery, arrive on a particular date, and more can help in building the nudge for them to choose you.

• Share option: The share option for the analytical buyers solves two issues. The first one is to get the opinion from their peers. The second one is a benefit. The share options may attract the buyer’s peers to shop for the product too. Place the share option clearly and integrate the share options.

Online store for the discount buyers

The discount buyers are value-driven shoppers who watch the final total more than the story. They know coupons, compare across tabs, and time purchases around sales. They do the math and see the profit they get by shopping on your website. Your goal here is to attract them with your offers and place the coupons and more in the right place where they can access and utilize them to shop from you.

How you can design your store for them:

• Build an offer page: A dedicated offer page is the discount buyers’ most favorite page on your website. Put all offers in one place and call it a “Discount Hub” or any other fancy name. This keeps bargain hunters focused, reduces site-wide pogo-sticking, and lets you control how discounts are discovered.

• Auto-apply the promo codes: When a user lands from an ad or email, apply the code automatically. Show a visible pop-up with the code applied and an attention-grabbing line that says, “You saved X money”. This clearly confirms the discount is active and saves shoppers from finding or typing the code.

• Publish the rules next to offer: You would have seen a small asterisk taking you to the footer of the website and showing you the terms and conditions. You need to do the same for the offers on your website. State eligibility, exclusions, quantity limits, and end date where the offer appears. This avoids confusion and cuts support tickets about why the code did not work for some buyers.

• Have a smart coupon box: Use one field with real-time validation and plain messages, plus an “Apply best code” helper for logged-in users. This reduces failed attempts and stops shoppers from leaving to hunt codes elsewhere.

• Alerts are very important: Your discounts can attract users when you let them know where they are. The discount page certainly helps, but place some pop-ups, push notifications, emails, and other communications that bring the user to your site.

Online store for the need-based buyers

The need-based users are the users with a goal and a timeline. They come to your online store exactly looking for what they need. Your website needs to be ready to show them that all they need is with you. They care less about your story and more about certainty. You need to show them the correct size or compatibility, guaranteed availability, and a clear delivery date to start with.

How you can design your store for them:

• Have a functional search: Support synonyms, model numbers, and typo-tolerance; rank results by fit and availability. This gets them to the right item fast without guesswork.

• Show availability: Certainty on the availability of the product reduces the last minute frustration. Indicate in stock, low stock, out of stock, and pre-order per size or colour and per store or region. Sync inventory via API/webhooks and display the state consistently on product, cart, and checkout.

• Display delivery date: The arrival date reduces anxiety and increases checkout. Calculate ETA from address and shipping method on product, cart, and checkout, with cut-off awareness.

• Send timely updates on order: The need-based buyers are really anxious about the delivery of their product in the right condition and at the right time. Confirm order, dispatch, out-for-delivery, and delivery with live tracking links. Automate these to save your effort and time.

• Early delivery filter: When speed matters, “arrives sooner” beats “lowest price.” Add a sort that prioritizes items that can arrive soonest to the shopper’s address. This will help the need-based buyers to find what they can get fast and proceed to checkout.

Build your online store using WEMASY’s system

Ready to give your shoppers an online store that just works for them? Build it on WEMASY’s webshop builder. With pre-built templates, clear page layouts, and features that already include search, stock visibility, delivery timelines, checkout, and payments, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Your store is ready to perform for all user types the moment you go live. Start building your website today.