6 steps to create your ideal consignment customer
July 13, 2018
Discover your ideal consignment customer by building a buyer persona
Every business should create a fictional character that represents their ideal customer. The women’s clothing retailer, Chico’s, has two buyer personas. Their primary customer is known as “Joy” and their secondary one is “Catherine.” Do you know your customers well enough to create the ideal consignment customer for your store? Did you know that’s called a buyer persona? Let’s find out what steps to take.
#1) Is it Bob or Betty?
Here’s a step you can definitely complete (If not, you’re really in a pickle). Is your primary customer male or female? For most shops, no matter what you sell, your ideal resale buyer persona is going to be a woman. Women are still the top shoppers, by far. According to CNBC, almost 40% of women frequent fashion discount stores compared to only 18% of men which makes women even stronger resale shoppers. Believe it or not, it’s also important to give that “buyer” an actual name.
#2) Say, how old are you anyway?
Asking someone how old they are is like asking if their pearls are real. Don’t do it. If you fancy yourself a good age guesser, have at it. I’m lousy and usually wind up totally embarrassing myself. Besides, when it comes to your business, the last thing you want to do is guess about anything. In the past, when I surveyed the resale community, I asked about their generation (i.e. Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, etc.) instead of actual age. Look closely at Google Analytics for your website or, look at your Facebook Insights under “People” for age information.
I also learned that one of our fans speaks “Pirate!” Arrrrgh.
#3) Is she a Mrs.?
Whether your ideal customer is female or male, you’ll want to find out their marital status. If married, spending habits are different. If married with children, priorities are completely different. Make sure your ideal consignment customer profile includes this information. Knowing about their family will definitely affect the bottom line.
#4) Yes, Housewife is a Career
Knowing the big 3 is extremely important as well. Education, job title and income. Obviously, those determine spending power. There are only a couple of ways to find out the answers to question #3 and #4. You’ll have to survey existing customers. Survey Monkey provides free survey templates. Send them to your top customers and offer a reward for completing it. Or, survey your customers through social media with a fun “Question of the Week” contest and offer a prize or special discount to one random participant.
#5) Folding a fitted sheet is my biggest challenge
To build a truly solid buyer persona, you need to ask a few “intimate” questions too. Questions like, “What is your biggest challenge in life?” “What is your #1 goal you hope to achieve?” The answers to these questions will help you understand your shopper completely. Think that’s kind of weird? It is. But, taking the time to meet with your top customers on a one-on-one basis and truly pick their brains is priceless. The information you’ll gain and the loyalty you’ll build is tremendous.
#6) “Here’s looking at you kid”
Now, choose an image that represents your ideal consignment customer. What does he or she look like? At SimpleConsign, we’ve created Cindy. Tape the image in your back room and refer to her by name. Talk about her with your sales team. Refer to him as if he truly exists. To get “Betty” to come into the store this fall, what do you we need to do? In order for “Bob” to spend more, how do we need to approach him? Let this buyer persona guide you in all of your marketing and sales decisions.
