One-Time, Occasional and Regular Purchases
There are two ways to think about one-time, occasional or regular purchases. For the purchaser, a one-time purchase may be desirable, buy it and move on. However, for the vendor, regular purchases are desirable as they guarantee a regular income.
For the Purchaser
One-time Purchases
Often a one-time solution appeals because the purchaser has resolved their problem and won’t need to think about it again. Almost anything can be a one-time purchase, although they may be infrequent occasional purchases.
Perhaps an example is courses. People are unlikely to pay for the same course twice. Someone who markets courses may be able to sell different courses to the same customer but each course is likely to be a one-time purchase.
Occasional Purchases
Occasional purchases are perhaps most common. Most of what I buy are occasional purchases because I buy them when something runs out or stops working. Some things run out regularly but in principle I buy them when I remember to and they are not part of my daily routine.
Regular Purchases
Regular purchases are things like subscriptions. The big advantage is you don’t need to think about them. You set up a standing order or direct debit and forget about them. I suppose this also covers routine purchases; “it’s Monday, so I must buy bananas”. However, routine purchases are more like occasional because in principle I can skip a Monday if I have bananas left over.
For the Vendor
One-time Purchases
For one-time purchasers, think about how to extend your market. There are two ways to do this. One is to build your reputation and ask your customers to recommend you to other potential customers. The other is to make new offers.
Someone selling online courses might do both. They sell more through marketing, often via past customers, and at other times create new courses that might appeal to past customers.
Occasional Purchases
Occasional purchases are perhaps more of a headache, especially for businesses with few offers. A supermarket probably benefits primarily from occasional purchases, although some people shop for the same things on the same day each week.
The occasional purchaser needs to be brought back and reminded you exist. This is fairly easy to do online and emails from businesses who sold us something years ago and still send reminders, plague many of us.
My nephew is or was interested in skateboards and outdoor activities. I get emails because I purchased relevant presents in the past.
Regular Purchases
The regular purchaser is like gold. If they sign up to a monthly subscription, however small, it is guaranteed income. So long as you continue to provide the service, the chances are most people forget about it and continue to subscribe indefinitely.
Your main challenge is to increase the number of subscriptions. There are some interesting approaches to this but I’ll leave those for another time.
How do you manage your customers’ journeys between one-time, occasional and regular purchasers?