Question

What is the difference between the buying process and consumer decision making?

Answer 1

There is a thin line of difference between the buying process and consumer decision making.

Buying process refers to the series of steps a consumer will take while actually purchasing a product. It includes the following steps:

1. Recognition of needs and wants: A purchase decision is made after weighing the needs and wants of the customer. This may refer to many factors that the customer might consider such as the cost, durability, competitive products, etc.

2. Information search: The customer then seeks out for all the alternatives available in the market, which may include reading reviews about the product, comparing prices of the product in different platforms, etc.

3. Evaluation of choices: The customer then analyses the chosen alternatives to have the best buy.

4. Purchase: Now, the customer actually makes the purchase of the product. The customer makes a decision whether as to from where to buy the product and what kind of monetary transaction to be made.

5. Post Purchase Evaluation: At this stage the customer has already purchased the product and is re-looking into the decision. Sometimes even at this stage, a customer can decide to exchange or return a brought product.

Consumer decision making process is one step before the actual buying process. In this phase, a consumer is getting motivated towards purchasing a product and is still learning about the product. The consumer follows the following rules before making a decision:

1. Compensatory Decision Rule: Consumer weighs the pros and cons of all the brands/alternatives available before making a decision.

2. Non-compensatory Decision Rule: Now the consumer evaluates the negative points about the alternatives, and does not overlook them for its positive points.

3. Affect Referral Decision Rule: Here, the consumer makes decisions based on previous experiences with a particular brand and product.

Having established the differences, it needs to be noted here that the thin line of difference often overlaps in reality. The two processes takes place simultaneously and it is difficult to differentiate when a consumer has changed a decision to a buying process.