Slow economy? The best time to get to know your customers

When the economy slows down and consumers become cautious, it’s easy to fall into a waiting mode – postponing new ideas or holding back on investments. But this is exactly the moment when those who look beyond the surface have the most to gain: what’s happening in your customers’ minds? What worries and expectations are guiding their decisions?

Getting to know your customer isn’t a luxury – it´s a survival skill. Every euro your customer spends with you is the result of a conscious decision. If you understand why they made that decision – or why they didn’t – you’re already one step ahead of your competitors.

Why customer insight matters now more than ever

When there are fewer buyers around, every transaction becomes more meaningful. Your content marketing, offers, and even your product selection need to be more targeted. In this situation, guessing won’t help. You need real knowledge: what people care about and what they feel they’re missing.

Understanding your customer helps you come up with new product ideas, shape content marketing, increase repeat purchases and test new solutions – not randomly, but based on real insight.

Market research and understanding your target audience

Doing market research doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. You can start by checking what kinds of products people are searching for on Google, what your competitors are offering, and how people are discussing these topics on social media. Social listening – paying attention to comments, forums, and reviews – can give you surprisingly useful clues about people’s expectations, questions, and pain points.

It’s also worth considering organizing a focus group – gather 5-8 people who could represent your target audience, and ask them to honestly comment on your product selection, pricing, or online store experience. This kind of feedback, gathered before major changes, can help you avoid mistakes and give you a sense of whether you’re heading in the right direction.

A good addition to this is creating buyer personas. If you have a clear understanding of who you’re selling to – what they care about, what their habits are, and what might prevent them from buying – you can target your marketing and product selection more effectively.

How to know what your customer really wants?

This question is familiar to many merchants. It’s often said that “customers don’t know what they want.” That may be true, but it doesn’t mean we can’t gather information. What’s needed is a smart approach.

You can start with the data you already have. For example, your e-store statistics already contain valuable clues – it’s just a matter of noticing and interpreting them. If you look at which products customers browse the most, how long they stay on certain pages, and which products they add to their cart (but don’t end up buying), you’ll start to see patterns. These are hints – not full answers, but a good beginning.

The next step is to ask, but not through long, boring surveys. Customers are willing to respond quickly and honestly if you reach out at the right time and in the right way. A post-purchase email asking for one-line feedback like “What did you like?” or “What was missing?” can provide invaluable insights. The same goes for a short feedback form on your website or a small survey at the end of a newsletter.

Another golden tool is social media. Instagram and Facebook story polls, “choose your favorite” type posts, or simple questions in the comments help you quickly sense which direction your customers are leaning. It’s important to react and genuinely take the feedback into account – this also strengthens customer trust in your brand.

If you have loyal customers, take the opportunity to connect with them personally. Even a short email to a repeat buyer asking why they keep coming back to you can reveal surprising information. Often, they see your store’s strengths and weaknesses more clearly than you do. Take the time – even three or four answers are better than none.

What next? What to do with the insights you’ve gathered?

Once you have the answers, don’t let them sit unused. Even if the feedback seems small at first, there might be a very clear idea hiding in there. For example, if several customers mention they’re looking for a certain type of product, you could create a new product category or run a campaign focused on those items. If they say the purchase didn’t go through because they didn’t have enough money, offering a “pay later” option might be exactly what turns abandoned carts into successful sales.

Your content marketing can also get a new boost. If you know that customers are afraid of buying the wrong size or need more information about materials, that’s a great topic for your next blog post or Instagram video. And if you know a specific part of the shopping experience causes confusion, you can improve it right away.

To sum up

Right now calls for smart thinking and openness. Instead of waiting, it’s worth asking, listening, and experimenting. Your customers’ voice is out there – you just need to learn how to hear and interpret it. Use this slower economy to your advantage and shape your offers to meet real needs.

Listen to your customer. They’re telling you more than you might think.