Practical Steps to Identify Your Store's Target Buyer • Esa ProductManager

Identifying your store’s target buyer is critical to your business success, but it doesn’t have to be a difficult or tedious task. Instead, with a little acumen and common sense, you can easily implement a strategy to clearly define who they are.

#1 Learn your product’s features and benefits

You can’t accurately profile your store’s target buyer until you first learn everything you can about what you sell. This includes the tangibles and intangibles.

You can start by asking yourself these (and similar) questions:

Why am I selling this item?
Does it make something easier?
Can it help my buyers save time?

Your answers will give you a rough idea of who might benefit from your product. But you’ll have to get much more specific than that.

#2 Gather details about your perfect customer

The next step is to start looking at key demographic factors such as their age group, gender, occupation, and income level. Simply put, this is your customer profile.

At this point, though, it’s just a one dimensional outline.

That’s because you can’t give it life, or understand your store’s target buyer, unless you know their motivations. But you can get a sense of them by assigning characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes based on what you’ve learned from your market research.

#3 Differentiate yourself from the competition

How are competitors who sell the same product(s) positioning themselves in the market? What are they focusing on in order to get the buyer’s attention? Remember, the focus (or differentiation) can be something seen or simply perceived.

Now think of ways that your product offering is different or unique from the competition. This differentiation not only sets you apart in a crowded market, it further pinpoints your store’s target buyer by increasing your overall understanding of them.

Knowing your store’s target buyer is crucial for many reasons, but one of the most important is realizing that you can’t appeal to everyone—and that, as a result, by consistently targeting the right customer, you’ll end up successful in the long run.