Customer segments
A customer segment is group of customers who share one or more attributes that are relevant to marketing activities. For example, we can define a customer segment that contains all registered customers, or all customers that spent over $1000 at the store, or all male customers over the age of 40. We can then use these customer segments as targets for advertising, promotions, and suggestive selling.The customer segments created in Management Center are considered dynamic. These segments are dynamic because customers belong to the segment based on their personal data, purchase history, and behavior, all of which can change over time. For example, we can create a customer segment that contains registered customers only, which means unregistered customers are excluded. As new customers register, they are dynamically added to the segment. Customer segments also support static criteria. For example, we can explicitly include or exclude particular customers or accounts, which overrides any defined dynamic criteria. In this way, we can include a customer in a segment that they would otherwise not match, or exclude a business account from a segment that it would otherwise match.
After creating a customer segment, we can specify that customer segment as a target when creating:
- Web and dialog activities
- Email activities
- Promotions
- Search rules
You create and manage customer segments with the Marketing tool in the Management Center.
Options for populating customer segments in Management Center
The Management Center supports three ways to populate customer segments:- Selecting a set of attributes from the customer segment properties view
The Management Center provides a series of tabbed pages for creating customer segments, called the customer segment properties view. Each tab contains a set of attributes. We can define a customer segment with any combination of attributes in the properties view, while the store gathers and stores customer data for those attributes. For example, to define a customer segment that contains male customers over 40, the store must gather and store gender and age information about customers. Typically, a store gathers this information through the registration and account update processes.
The following screen capture shows the customer segment properties view with the Purchase Details tab open. This Big Spenders customer segment dynamically includes all customers that spent over $1000 since they registered with the store:
For a complete list of attributes included in the customer segment properties view, see Customer segment attributes.
For B2B stores, the customer segment properties view contains an Accounts tab. This tab contains attributes related to customer accounts; the Accounts tab is not shown in the previous screen capture.
- Use marketing activities to add or remove customers
The Management Center provides an action element that we can add to any web or dialog activity. This element adds customers to or removes customers from a customer segment that is based on their behavior as they participate in the activity. This action is an ideal way to categorize customers for behavioral marketing initiatives. We must first use the customer segment properties view to create a customer segment. This customer segment does not need any additional attributes that are defined, but we must set a flag in the customer segment to allow marketing activities to populate the segment. We can then create a web or dialog activity containing the action element that adds customers to or removes customers from the segment. The addition or removal of customers is based on what the customer does while they are shopping on your store.
The following screen capture shows a dialog activity containing the Add To or Remove From Customer Segment action. In this example, the dialog activity is categorizing customers into three segments (Golfers, Skiers, and Tennis Players), based on which products they purchase:
dialog activity that contains "Add To or Remove From Customer Segment""/>
We can also request that an administrator use the Data Load utility to populate a customer segment. See Loading customer segment members by email address with the Data Load utility.
Behavior of customer segments that have no attributes defined
In certain circumstances, we might need to create a customer segment that has a name, but that does not have any attributes that are defined in the customer segment properties view. For example, if the site uses an external process to populate customer segments, we can create this type of customer segment to act as a container for the external data. For instructions that apply to all fix pack levels, see Creating a customer segment that is populated by an external process.Exporting customer segment information
We can export customer information for the customers that make up a customer segment in Management Center. We can then use this exported information to analyze our customer segments or to manage marketing campaigns outside of Management Center. For example, we can export the email addresses for the customers in a specific customer segment to send a marketing email to these customers with a different application. See Exporting customer segment information.
Exporting customer segment information to Universal Behavior Exchange (UBX)
We can integrate Universal Behavior Exchange (UBX) with WebSphere Commerce so that we can export customer segments. This is done by selecting the Allow exports to external
applications property when creating a customer segment. See
Universal Behavior Exchange (UBX) integration with WebSphere Commerce and Creating a customer segment.
Related tasks
Previewing a store as a customer in a customer segment
Creating a customer segment
Creating a customer segment that is populated by an external process
Changing a customer segment
Deleting a customer segment
Related reference
Customer segment attributes