Clearly Define Your Different Target Customers

Shoppers prefer to buy at stores they feel fit their personalities. Depending on how large your store is, different parts of it can have different personalities. You also can have different stores with different personalities. Still, there are limits. By clearly defining your specific types of target customers, you can design shopping experiences to fit them. Customers who don't fit into one of the types you've defined may avoid shopping with you, but that loss will be more than replaced with purchases from shoppers who feel a good fit.
     Best Buy did this a while back, clearly defining their five top types of target customers:

• The professional man who wants a superior quality home theatre system, even if it carries a very high price.
• The young man willing to spend money on state-of-the-art features to show off to other young adults.
• The family man who wants good value and is willing to forgo state-of-the-art features.
• The busy suburban mom looking for products the family will enjoy using together.
• The owner/operator of a small business who wants to know about the commercial cost/benefit tradeoffs.

     It's not as if Best Buy decided to shoo off other kinds of customers. Unless somebody has dropped by to rob you, destroy merchandise, or insult your shoppers, it sure seems you'd like to have their business. But when Best Buy featured instrumental and children's music in areas designed for a busy suburban mom, the side effect was making the area less attractive to some other kinds of customers.
     What is the personality of each of your store areas and websites? Is the personality intentionally designed rather than happening by accident? Do those intentions place more importance on fitting the personality of your most promising customers than on fitting your own personality?