Clustering and Profiling Consumer Buying Behavior: The Greek Case During Crisis Period

This paper aims to identify the factors that affect consumers' buying behavior towards goods of consumers' shopping basket to classify them into groups according to their similar buying behavior patterns and to profile each group of consumers. A primary survey conducted to 242 consumers in Greece. Principal component analysis (PCA) conducted to identify the main factors that affect consumers purchasing behavior. Cluster analysis performed to classify consumers into groups with similar purchasing behavior whilst discriminant analysis conducted to check cluster predictability. Nonparametric tests are performed to profile each group of consumers according to their demographic characteristics and other factors. PCA identified six main factors: (1) price, (2) entertainment during shopping, (3) advertisement, (4) public relationships, (5) product features, (6) promotion activities. Cluster analysis classified consumers into three groups: (1) advertisement-orientated consumers, (2) promotion-orientated consumers, and (3) entertainment-orientated consumers.