In: Economics
The consumer buying process goes through a decision process including five stages discussed as below:
1) Problem Recognition: During the recognition of problem the consumer recognizes their concerns which need to be satisfied with the good or service in the market. The need of the customers can be triggered by internal as well as external stimuli. The internal stimuli consist of the normal requirements such as thirst, hunger, or comfort; and the external stimuli consist of the external forces, such as word-of-mouth or advertising.
2) Information search: The customer collects the information in this stage to find out the best solution. The consumers can search the information about various products from different sources such as commercial source, public sources, personal sources and experimental sources
3) Evaluation of alternatives: The customer evaluate all of their goods and brand options on a scale of attributes who holds the ability for getting the maximum benefit that they are seeking. While evaluation of the items and services, different consumers applies different bases such as the degree of importance, attributes of the product, satisfaction, belief in the brand, etc
4) Purchase decision: After evaluating the various alternatives the consumer may form a decision to buy the most promising brand and identify the value that item will get him. However it can be disrupted due to a negative feedback from other people, unanticipated situational factors and customer’s perceived risk
5) Post-purchase evaluation: Since most of the time there is a variation between the expected satisfaction level and the actual satisfaction, thus the subsequent behaviour is often influenced by degree of satisfaction/dissatisfaction by the customer.