If you don’t know how and why consumers buy products, you won’t be very successful in ecommerce.
As technology reshapes shopping habits and consumer expectations shift, businesses must adapt their strategies to stay competitive. Today's buying patterns are increasingly complex, driven by everything from the surge in mobile commerce to growing demands for personalized shopping experiences.
By understanding these behavior patterns, businesses can better position themselves to meet consumer needs and drive sustainable growth. This post explores seven key trends and philosophies shaping customer buying behavior in 2025 and beyond, drawing on insights from Shopify's vast data and research.
Types of consumer buying behavior
Complex buying behavior
When consumers buy something that involves a significant financial and emotional investment, they engage in complex buying behavior. They will extensively research new products, compare multiple brands, and evaluate features before buying. This stems from consumers not wanting to make the wrong choice.
Think of someone buying their first home. They spend months researching neighborhoods, comparing prices, and meeting with real estate agents because they understand the weight of their decision and want to get it right.
Habitual buying behavior
On the other end of the spectrum is habitual buying. It’s the automatic, almost unconscious purchasing we do for everyday items where brand differences matter little. Think of running to the grocery store and grabbing the same brand of paper towels without giving it a second thought.
Dissonance-reducing buying behavior
This buying behavior occurs when consumers make important, high-value purchases, but don’t see the difference between the available options.
Consider buying a new mattress. While it's a big investment, most options seem similar, leading buyers to focus on price and availability rather than specific features. They often choose quickly to avoid the stress of overthinking a purchase where brand differences appear minimal.
Variety-seeking buying behavior
Variety-seeking behavior happens when consumers switch between brands simply for the sake of change. Unlike other buying patterns, this behavior isn't driven by dissatisfaction, but by a desire for novelty.
Picture a college student in the snack aisle, choosing different brands of chips each week. It’s not because they hate any particular brand, but because they enjoy experiencing new flavors and options.
How businesses can adapt to customers’ buying behavior
1. Mobile-first shopping
Mobile devices have quickly become a top channel for online purchases, especially for retailers generating over $10,000 in GMV. In fact, a 2022 Pew Research Center study shows that 76% of US adults shop online using a smartphone, reflecting the broader shift toward mobile.
Over the past two years alone, mobile orders have surged by 44%, and Shop Pay users now rely on mobile devices for more than 70% of their transactions. If you want to capture a shopper's attention, a cohesive and branded mobile presence is important.
From user-friendly designs to optimized payment tools like Shop Pay, seamless mobile experiences can make the difference between a passing glance and a loyal customer.
Monos, a Canadian travel brand with four online stores, swapped checkout.liquid for Checkout Extensions, reducing code hassles and streamlining mobile checkouts. This move enabled seamless upsells, and integrated shipping insurance and Shop Pay, boosting conversions by up to 50% compared to guest checkout.
2. Personalization is paramount
Merely having a mobile presence isn’t enough.
Shoppers now expect personalization at every touchpoint. Brands that tailor product recommendations, streamline navigation, and offer fast, frictionless checkouts will capture customers’ attention and repeat business. In fact, 50% of consumers say personalized offers and promotions enhance their overall shopping experience. It’s clear that generic marketing strategies simply aren’t enough.
To meet this demand, brands are turning to first-party data, which provides a rich, reliable view of individual customer behavior in a privacy-compliant manner, and using it to personalize every part of the customer journey.
Shoppers now zigzag across channels. One moment they are browsing product reviews on social media, the next checking inventory in-store, or comparing prices on your website. By capturing these touchpoints, you’ll see exactly when and how to customize marketing messages.
Shopify's customer segmentation tools help retailers build highly targeted audience groups using both demographic and behavioral data. They can filter customers based on purchase history, email engagement, demographics, location data, and custom attributes through metafields. Segments update dynamically as customer information changes, so you can create targeted marketing campaigns that evolve with consumer behavior.
With Shop Campaigns, brands can precisely define their customer acquisition costs and target returns, while Shopify's algorithms match offers to buyers based on their shopping behavior and preferences across the Shop network. This data-driven personalization helps ads reach shoppers most likely to connect with your brand across Shop's network of millions of shoppers and top ad platforms.
Personalization is what helps brands like Tecovas thrive online and in-store. At Tecovas, store associates can see a shopper’s purchase history and personal preferences at checkout, letting them suggest new arrivals or offer personalized add-ons on the spot. Real-time, in-store data reinforces Tecovas’s “radical hospitality” ethos, so every store visit feels unique and meaningful for each customer.
3. Unified commerce drives sales
Unified commerce merges every sales channel, online, in-store, and even mobile, into one cohesive platform. It’s no longer enough to maintain separate systems that merely “talk” to each other. Today’s shoppers demand a fluid customer experience wherever they browse or buy.
With Shopify’s commerce platform, product, order, and customer data come together in a single commerce operating system (COS), which applies the unified approach to your front and back end. This creates a single source of truth that guides your entire retail operation.
Research shows that brands unifying their online and in-store operations through Shopify POS see major benefits: up to a 5% increase in sales and a 22% lower total cost of ownership on average.
Retailers like OAK + FORT and Pepper Palace show the power of unified commerce by cutting hours of manual processes, opening more locations faster, and offering consistent brand experiences on every channel.
4. Affiliate marketing is vital
Consumer trust in influencers and creators has led to a rise in affiliate marketing. In 2024, Statista estimates that the affiliate marketing spend in the United States stood at $10.72 billion, and is projected to reach almost $12 billion in 2025.
Affiliate-driven sales often yield higher average order values, as shoppers respond strongly to personal recommendations. In fact, affiliate marketing consistently ranks as one of the top-referring channels across regions, and maintains its position among the top two revenue bands when ranked by average order value.
To help you tap into this momentum, Shopify Collabs offers an integrated way to discover and collaborate with the right creators for your brand. Through Collabs, you can easily set up an affiliate program, send product samples, and track sales and commissions in a single dashboard.
Whether you’re looking to recruit new brand advocates or streamline relationships with existing partners, Collabs automates the entire process from start to finish. In an era when customer attention is precious, authentic endorsements from creators can be the key to improving sales and loyalty.
With Collabs, Moonboon has built a community of over 300 passionate creators who authentically share their experiences with sustainable baby sleep products. The brand’s approach proves that genuine relationships with creators, even those with smaller followings, can drive exceptional results, considering a single creator with under 25,000 followers generated more than $110,000 in sales during a recent campaign.
“Shopify Collabs has simplified profiling and signing of new creators. The intuitive dashboard gives us a seamless overview of the affiliate program and general sales tracking. We are crazy about the simplicity of the tool and work on the platform daily. It is an incredible tool that helps us grow and scale our tactical lower funnel work with creators who are passionate about our brand and products”
5. Trust and convenience are key drivers
Studies show that consumers want data privacy, and will fight to defend it. They want to know exactly how their information is collected and used, especially when making online purchases. In this type of environment, businesses must prioritize transparency and respect for customer data.
That’s why a secure digital wallet, like Shop Pay, is key. As the most-used wallet on Shopify, it securely stores shipping and billing information on PCI-compliant servers, and verifies purchases with passkeys or a unique code.
Convenience also encourages loyalty. Shop Pay users are 77% more likely to make repeat purchases thanks to features like one-tap checkout and stored shipping addresses that reduce friction. For brands, that translates to fewer abandoned carts and more satisfied customers.
6. Customer loyalty programs drive repeat business
Customers keep coming back when they feel valued, and the numbers prove it. Loyalty programs deliver an extraordinary 4.8 times return on investment, with 90% of programs showing positive results. For businesses with substantial sales volume, these customer retention programs turn occasional buyers into long-term advocates.
The trick is offering rewards that truly resonate. Whether it's exclusive preview sales, personalized discounts, or VIP events, these perks create a genuine connection between the brand and the customer.
Modern tech has made loyalty programs more powerful than ever. Take Marsello's integration with Shopify POS, for example. It seamlessly connects in-store and online shopping experiences, instantly recognizing customers and applying their rewards at checkout. The platform captures valuable feedback, so retailers can better understand and serve their customers.
7. Using the Shop Network
The Shop network, driven by tools such as the Shop app, Shop Pay, and Shop Campaigns, helps influence decision making by combining seamless checkout experiences with targeted marketing features.
Over the course of 2023, the number of buyers using Shop increased 2.6 times, demonstrating the platform’s growing influence. Retailers adopting these tools are reporting incredible results: the top 100 brands see a 6.3 times faster repurchase rate when customers use the Shop app, while Shop Campaigns can generate up to 24% growth in new customers.
OluKai, a footwear brand inspired by island life, sought a new channel to lower rising customer acquisition costs (CAC) and increase awareness. By integrating Shop Campaigns into their acquisition strategy, OluKai discovered a highly effective, low-effort way to attract new customers.
Shop Campaigns provided simple setup and pay-per-conversion pricing. The brand used offer-based promotions to entice new customers and make more sales. Orders via Shop Campaigns had a 12% higher AOV compared to other channels during the brand’s four-week holiday campaign. Plus, the brand attracted and converted more than 1,400 new customers at a lower CAC than its other advertising channels.
Meet your customers where they are with Shopify
Shoppers today are browsing and buying everywhere. Their expectations are continuing to evolve as they want more personal and effortless experiences. Retailers are responding by leveraging customer data, unifying their sales channels, and optimizing for mobile.
Shopify makes this digital transformation possible for retail brands. Whether you're crafting individualized journeys for millions of customers, orchestrating complex personalization at scale, or building market-specific experiences, Shopify's enterprise solutions have got you covered.
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FAQ on customer buying behavior
What is consumer behavior?
Consumer behavior is how people make buying decisions and use products or services. It includes what they choose, why they buy it, when and where they make purchases, and how they use what they've bought.
What are the four types of consumer behavior?
The four main types of customer buying behavior are:
- Complex buying: Used for expensive, high-involvement purchases where brands matter significantly, like buying a car or laptop.
- Dissonance-reducing: Occurs with expensive purchases where brands don't differ much, such as buying flooring or furniture.
- Habitual buying: Used for low-cost, frequent purchases with little brand loyalty, like buying bread or paper towels.
- Variety-seeking: Happens with low-cost items where consumers like to try different brands, such as snacks or shampoo.
What are consumers' buying behaviors?
Some consumer buying behaviors include:
- Mobile-first shopping preferences
- Expecting personalized experiences across all touchpoints
- Multichannel shopping between online, mobile, and in-store
- Strong response to creator and influencer recommendations
- Increased concern for data privacy and security
- Higher engagement with loyalty programs and rewards
- Desire for convenient, frictionless checkout processes
What are the four factors of buying behavior?
The four main factors are:
- Cultural factors: Cultural values, subcultures, and social class that shape basic preferences and purchasing behaviors
- Social factors: Reference groups, family, roles, and status that influence product and brand choices
- Personal factors: Age, life-cycle stage, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, and personality
- Psychological factors: Motivation, perception, learning, beliefs, and attitudes that affect purchase decisions
What are the five stages of consumer buying behavior?
- Problem/need recognition: Recognizes a need or problem that requires a solution
- Information search: Searches for information about potential solutions, using both personal sources (family, friends) and commercial sources (advertising, websites)
- Evaluation: Compares different options, brands, and features to find the best solution
- Purchase decision: Decides what to buy, where to buy it, when to buy it, and how much to spend
- Post-purchase: Experiences satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the purchase and decides whether to make repeat purchases or recommend the product to others
