Tailored Tummy Treats: Modern customers desire brands to engage on a personal level, creating personalized experiences that cater to their specific preferences and expectations, akin to seeking the perfect dog food for a fussy eater.
The Picky Eater's Paw-sitive Influence: Personalization in customer service becomes crucial, much like finding the right meal for a choosy pet, ensuring both satisfaction and loyalty.
Connection Beyond Crunchy Kibble: Customers now value brands that make efforts to understand individual needs, fostering a sense of connection similar to selecting food that suits a pet’s particular palate.
Barking Up the Right Brand Tree: Experience-sharing illustrates the importance of brands going the extra mile to resonate with consumer demands, transforming mere transactions into meaningful relationships.
Fetching Personalized Marketing: Aligning marketing strategies with customer desires is key, demonstrated by an engaging, relatable approach that meets the specific needs of each user, much like a Maltese’s unique dietary requirements.
Modern customers expect brands to connect with them on a personal level, offering experiences that feel tailored to their individual needs.
Let me prove it by sharing something I experienced while looking for new dog food for my picky eater: a 6-kg adult Maltese.

But, when the package finally arrived at my doorstep, things took a turn. I eagerly opened it, expecting to find detailed, customized instructions for preparing my dog’s meals.
There was nothing.
No note, no guide—just a bag of food. I had to search their website for the appropriate daily serving size myself.
It was an inconvenience and a letdown, especially for someone like me who has seen brands like Farmer's Dog master thoughtful touches, right down to the packaging.
I naturally expected the same here.
Instead, I was left feeling frustrated by the wasted potential of that form. If the brand knew how to use audience segmentation well, they could have easily sent me instructions tailored to my small, adult dog.
That would have been a perfect example of how audience segmentation can enhance customer interactions and experiences.
It goes to show: Data collection isn't enough; it must be used to produce meaningful, personalized experiences and messages.
Audience segmentation doesn't just apply to packaging or instructions—it extends across all areas of a business.
For example, segmented email campaigns alone have been shown to increase revenue by up to 760% compared to non-segmented ones.
In this article, I’m going to walk you through different audience segmentation examples, offer tips to refine your strategies, and dive into the different marketing software types that can help you execute segmentation effectively.
What is Audience Segmentation?
Audience segmentation allows brands to create subgroups of their existing and potential customers based on shared characteristics.
It sits at the core of personalized customer experiences, as it takes individual needs, preferences, interests, and shopping journeys, into account.
The process of connecting with each prospect one-by-one is inefficient, ineffective, and impossible to scale. Audience segmentation takes this burden away by identifying emerging patterns that tell you what your specific audience needs and expects.
These patterns, which characterize the segments, enable you to craft content and experiences that can turn your audience into loyal customers—without exhausting your resources.
You can rely on them to create tailored marketing and communication that caters to different types of possible customers.
Benefits of Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation needs to be a part of your ecommerce marketing strategy because it can help your brand:
Create better campaigns
Knowing your audience better helps you understand which channels, messaging, and content format they respond to.
Showing that you understand their needs, wants, preferences, and so on is crucial to crafting campaigns that speak to them and blow them away.
Since implementing these strategies, we’ve seen a significant improvement in our ad performance and email marketing engagement.
Our campaigns are more personalized, which has led to better results overall.
For example, after focusing on segmenting based on customer preferences (like hair extensions vs. wigs), we saw a 20% increase in conversions from targeted email campaigns.
It’s helped us speak more directly to what our customers really care about.

Optimizing budget
Understanding what your audience expects from you helps funnel your resources into meaningful and tailored strategies.
This way, you avoid shooting in the dark or relying on one-size-fits-all marketing that leads to underwhelming results.
Our marketing campaigns are now more cost-effective because we can target specific groups with personalized messages.
This has led to better use of our budget and more impactful marketing.

Identifying new opportunities
Recognizing the differences between audience segments makes it easier to see new, interesting angles for new content, partnerships, or marketing approach.
We noticed that event planners tend to purchase in bulk and return frequently, while DIY buyers shop sporadically for personal events.
So we created targeted email campaigns—offering bulk discounts and early access for planners, while providing DIY tips and decor inspiration for individual buyers.
After launching these segmented campaigns, we saw a 22% increase in return purchases from event planners.
For example, during wedding season, we offered planners exclusive bundles with string lights and decor kits.
It became one of our most successful promotions.

Attracting and retaining customers
Audience segmentation considers where your audience is in their journey with your brand.
Delivering the right content and experience—at the right time and on the right channel—can smoothly guide them from awareness to purchase, and even loyalty.
We switched to a segmentation strategy that unlocked deeper engagement.
When we emphasized product stories (e.g., the carbon footprint of our wood over conventional materials), customers felt more connected.
This change resulted in an 18% increase in repeat purchases.

Meeting compliance requirements
Doing business online means honoring the laws in areas you operate in—regardless whether it’s within cities, countries, and continents.
Segmenting your audience helps you be on top of related complex matters, such as customer data privacy, product-related restrictions, and local regulations.
We segment our audience primarily to ensure compliance with state regulations requiring fireworks purchasers to be at least 18 years old.
Since implementing our segmentation strategy, we’ve seen a 30% reduction in regulatory compliance issues.

4 Major Types of Audience Segmentation (With Examples)
You can segment your audience in many ways.
To help you see what these different types look IRL, I'll give you inspiring audience segmentation examples from brands doing it well.
I’ll also introduce you to TammyBooster, a fictional gut health brand, and two representatives of their key customer segments, Charlene and Chip, to show how segmentation helps deliver tailored messaging that boosts engagement and sales.
Bonus: You’ll also pick up ecommerce marketing tips like how to use personalized emails, product recommendations, and segment-specific promotions along the way.
Let’s start.
1. Demographic segmentation
Demographic segmentation classifies customers based on quantifiable attributes for more precise campaign targeting.
Unfortunately, less than 50% of marketers know their audience demographics.
But the results demonstrate its value: 96% reported demographic knowledge helped them turn buyers into repeat customers, and 94% said it boosts sales.
Examples of demographic attributes that brands can benefit from include:
- Income
- Age
- Gender
- Ethnicity
- Religion
- Education level
Stitch Fix, a clothing and styling brand, leverages gender and age to deliver targeted, personalized customer experiences.
The minute you land on their homepage, you're prompted to take a style quiz designed to collect information about the audience:

The quiz starts with this basic yet crucial demographic-related question:

At the minimum, Stitch Fix needs to know which gender or age buckets shoppers fall into before recommending clothing items to them.
As a result, each web visitor feels understood and catered to, building trust and encouraging repeat engagement.
TammyBooster’s demographic audience segmentation

Let’s imagine TammyBooster has four flagship products:
- Tummy Tune-Up for hormonal imbalance
- Gut Guerrilla for post-workout nutrition
- Happy Belly Blend for gut support for seniors
- Microbiome Magic for all-around gut support.
So in their newsletter sign-up form, TammyBooster doesn’t just ask for name and email address. They also add gender and age group checkboxes to help segment their email list according to these details.
Since signing up, Charlene and Chip, a 30-something couple, receive informative email campaigns about products they might be interested in, such as Tummy Tune-Up for Charlene, Gut Guerrilla for Chip, and Microbiome Magic for both.
Instead of casting a wide net, demographic-based targeted campaigns can focus on the most likely customers and boost ROI.
This audience segmentation strategy is perfect for industries that cater to a broad and diverse customer base. It’s a first line of insight into getting to know your audience.
2. Psychographic segmentation
Segmenting by psychographic data is a more advanced approach than demographic segmentation.
It allows you to go deeper into what your customers need and want.
The information is harder to obtain, but it’s worth the effort because 72% of consumers expect businesses they purchase from to see them as individuals and understand what they want.
Psychographic segmentation outperforms surface-level personalization as it taps into customer information, such as:
- Customer interests: Depending on what you sell, this can cover a lot of ground, including hobbies, activities, passions, and topics.
- Values, attitudes, and motivations: Are they driven by data or emotion? Find out what encourages them to take the next step.
- Lifestyle choices: There are two types—leads that fit into the lifestyle your current marketing speaks to, and an available customer segment that you plan to expand your marketing to.
- Personality traits: If you sell animal print socks, you’re going to benefit from knowing if your subscriber is a dog or a cat person.
Let’s revisit Stitch Fix.
To hone in on their segmentation strategy, the brand probes a few more questions on their target audience’s preferences:

As well as their life stage or intended use:

Demographic questions only tell Stitch Fix that the customer is a female adult.
Using psychographic data, they learn that she values unique pieces and seeks comfort over style. Combining them makes for more targeted and personalized styling recommendations.
TammyBooster’s psychographic audience segmentation

Let’s say TammyBooster plans to maximize campaigns during Gut Health Month.
They conduct a mental health check-in via an Instagram poll and learn that the majority of their followers, including Charlene, are quick to experience stress and anxiety.
To meet the bulk of their audience’s lifestyle focus, the brand arranges a “Gut Health x Stress Management” webinar with mental health experts—which Charlene eagerly participates in!
Psychographic-based digital marketing efforts require more data points than demographic ones.
It works well for ecommerce businesses, such as DTC brands, that can benefit from establishing a strong emotional connection with consumers.
3. Behavioral segmentation
Behavioral segmentation matches messaging with how the target audience interacts with a brand across platforms.
It makes the most of the data you already have: website analytics, purchase details, email engagement, social media interactions, and so on.
This audience segmentation strategy can be helpful for 45% of marketers who struggle to find quality data to target segmented groups.
Look for valuable insights, including:
- Usage rate: Are they heavy, moderate, or light users of your app or website?
- Purchase behavior or history: what customers buy, how often, and the factors influencing their decisions
- Engagement level: interactions across platforms to nurture loyal customers or re-engage inactive ones (e.g., social media interactions, email click-through rates, website conversion rates)
British fashion and beauty brand ASOS uses these metrics (past purchases, browsing habits, and engagement metrics) to personalize customer experiences across multiple touchpoints.
For instance: Regular shoppers can receive tailored discount offers, new arrival updates, and product suggestions in-app and via email based on their preferences:


After spending a few minutes browsing and shopping in-app, ASOS suggests similar options if an item in the shopper’s cart sells out.
ASOS also partners with Criteo for retail media advertising.
Through this initiative, the brand can display targeted ads on their platform, app, and publisher websites.
The placement of these ads leverages ASOS’ first-party data based on audience’s browsing behavior and preferences.
Even when the ideal customers aren’t in the mood to shop, this behavior-targeted omnichannel marketing strategy catches customer attention and keeps the brand top-of-mind.
TammyBooster’s behavioral audience segmentation

TammyBooster is launching a new product, Probiotic Parade.
When creating personalized messaging for their different audience segments, they consider the different purchasing behaviors they exhibit, which are divided into the following categories:
- General wellness shoppers
- Natural and organic buyers
- Health-conscious seniors
- Fitness enthusiasts
- Hormonal balance seekers
For Gut Guerilla user Chip, who classifies as a fitness enthusiast, the messaging and content he receives focus mostly on how probiotic supplements could boost endurance and reduce exercise fatigue.
By leveraging audience behavior, this segmentation type helps craft brand messaging that customers organically connect with.
DTC brands, wholesalers, and subscription-based brands often use this to tailor their messaging based on real-time customer interactions.
4. Geographic segmentation
Geographical segmentation is an effective way to reach customers where they are and provide them with information they’ll need or be interested in.
Geographic segmentation allows brands to target marketing messages based on their location, and by extension:
- Seasonal patterns: Some regions have all four seasons, while others have more moderate climates with less change between seasons.
- Local activities and events: Hosting a pop-up? Using experiential marketing? Connecting with a subscriber through their location opens up new possibilities. This might take a little bit of research on your part, but if you sell a niche product, it could have a high ROI.
- Timezones: Do you want to send out emails or post on social media at the best time of day for each of your multiple audiences?
For ecommerce brands, especially those selling internationally, knowing where your customers are also shaping your product offerings, currencies, language, pricing, payment methods, and more.
Here’s how Sezane, a French luxury brand, redirects their audience to the right domain based on their location:

This is useful because the content on the website adapts to what the web visitor needs, as you can see in the highlighted sections below.
(Let the record show: The first image is from the US domain, and the second, the Spanish domain.)

This segmentation type is also highly recommended for ecommerce brands with physical locations and those dealing with perishable or time-sensitive goods.
Maine-based Lobster Anywhere segments its audience geographically to ensure all customers receive their fresh lobsters and home-cooked dishes on time.
Location plays a big role because we need to plan adequately to deliver to locations on the West Coast, as opposed to delivering to customers closer to Maine.

TammyBooster’s geographical audience segmentation

TammyBooster currently only offers their subscription supplements in the US.
Using geographic segmentation, the brand is able to put out appropriate product recommendations and content in front of the right audience at the right time.
Charlene and Chip, who reside in Connecticut, often receive vitamin C-infused product recommendations and winter wellness content when the freezing weather rolls in.
The brand also segments its audience based on urban and rural lifestyles to promote on-the-go products and larger family-sized supplements, respectively.
As an urban dwelling couple, Charlene and Chip get adverts for (and occasionally purchase) travel-friendly TammyBooster packs, perfect for tossing in their bags as they head to work or the gym.
Bonus: Advanced segmentation techniques
Audience segmentation can help you avoid fitting customers into a single mold.
Fortunately, modern ecommerce marketing tools let you take advantage of more advanced marketing analytics to create more refined segments.
Here are some techniques to help you do just that:
Customer lifecycle segmentation
This segmentation focuses on mapping out customer journeys and tailoring your messaging and offers to meet them at each stage.
Laser and IPL manufacturer Lynton Aesthetics puts this segmentation strategy to work when creating in-depth resources for their specific audience.
Look at these excellent audience segmentation examples:

- Product guides: Downloadable brochure for each product for those in the research phase
- Targeted landing pages: For different treatments addressing specific needs and pain points
- Comparison pages: To help customers evaluate different devices side by side and facilitate informed decision-making
- Product benefit pages: Unique product advantages that help customers understand why they should choose Lynton Aesthetics
By aligning content to different points of the buying process, you can address your target and existing customers’ doubts and reservations, helping them slide down the funnel without sounding pushy.
Customer value segmentation
In customer value segmentation, you can group customers based on their potential profitability and lifetime value.
Knowing this, you can reward high-value customers with first dibs on exclusive content and deals.
Low-value audience might benefit more from receiving more engaging, less-salesy content, such as before-and-after stories.
Demonstrating the benefits of the brand’s offerings can nudge them to take action.
Let’s imagine that TammyBooster tracks customer value for each product with CRM tools like Salesforce.
Because Charlene and Chip are avid users of different TammyBooster supplements, consistently stocking up on their favorites, the brand classifies them as high-value customers.
The couple regularly receives exclusive discounts and loyalty rewards for bulk purchases, which they use to their full advantage.
Some of the metrics you can track for this audience segmentation technique include average order value (AOV), customer lifetime value (CLV), churn rate, and level of engagement.
Purchase intent segmentation
Intent-based segmentation analyzes both existing and potential customers based on their likelihood to make a purchase.
You can gauge your audience’s purchase intent through surveys, data analysis, or just observing their interactions with your content.
Consider this scenario: TammyBooster is holding another Instagram poll, asking followers which Tummy Tune-Up variants they'd like to see: gummy, liquid drops, or chewable tablets.
Charlene votes for gummy, along with 70% of the participants.
When TammyBooster announces the winning variant through an Instagram post and story, Charlene likes both, even sharing the good news with her followers on her own story.
The brand notices how enthusiastic she is about the new product, so she’s among those receiving a targeted email with a time-limited discount code on the first day of its launch.
Our advice: Layer segmentation strategies for more impact
You can concentrate your efforts wisely rather than doing everything for everyone with proper audience segmentation.
And the best part is that you don’t have to pigeonhole your brand in your strategy. Mixing and matching techniques can further engage your audience.
I’ve shown you some audience segmentation examples of how effectively these methods work together.
Stitch Fix, a real-world brand, combines demographic and psychographic-based techniques to target potential customers more intentionally with highly personalized product recommendations.
TammyBooster, our hypothetical brand, uses various segmentation strategies to effectively nurture their relationships with high-value customers like Charlene and Chip, boosting retention and sales.
By now, these examples have probably stirred your mind with wonderful ideas on applying segmentation to your business.
We’ll talk about it in the next section.
How to Segment Your Ecommerce Audience: Step-by-Step Guide
Instead of generic, blanket campaigns, audience segmentation helps you craft personalized experiences.
Follow these steps to develop a tailored, well-segmented ecommerce marketing strategy for your audience.
I’ve included real-life case studies and will walk you through TammyBooster’s approach to help you see how each stage plays out in action.
Bonus: You’ll also learn about the top ecommerce marketing tools that can support you at every step.
1. Collect and review audience information
Effective audience segmentation starts with understanding your target market—and that all begins with data and feedback.
You can use platforms like Google Analytics and advanced survey tools to help you get to know your ideal customers better. These tools are also better at handling information as it grows.
Using a CRM system, on the other hand, help you deep dive into your existing customers’ preferences.
An online grocer for local food businesses, Tre’dish chose Salesforce to capture order details, purchase info, and store-related data.
It helped the company developed customer journeys, which became a useful resource when nurturing their relationship with the chefs they’re working with.
TammyBooster also leverages Salesforce to manage the comprehensive data sets from their Shopify-built website, social media platforms, email campaigns, and feedback surveys.
This enabled them to consolidate a wealth of information into customer personas with minimal effort.
Be it demographic, behavioral, or transactional, data collection is much easier with CRM systems. They automate tedious data entry and integrate various data sources as more customers interact with you.
Integrating CRM systems with ecommerce platforms offers you a more cohesive view of your audience. The right CRM tools can create dynamic, real-time segments as visitors interact with your site.
Below are our top-recommended ecommerce CRMs to streamline your data collection efforts.
2. Define segmentation criteria
The second and most imperative step is to narrow your data before it becomes too big to handle.
Look for patterns in your data. What similar traits does your audience have?
Create audience subgroups based on demographic, psychographic, behavioral, geographic, or a mix of these categories.
TammyBooster started with demographic data. As the brand grows, they’ve learned to combine and deploy several segmentation types to accommodate every pain point and preference.
This enabled them to refine their audience segmentation strategy, as seen below:
Segmentation type | Key criteria | Primary segments | Characteristics & examples |
---|---|---|---|
Demographic | Age, gender | Young adults (25-34), middle-aged adults (35-54), seniors (55+) | Young adults: Social media-savvy, career-driven. Middle-aged: Family-focused, loyal to brands. Seniors: Health-conscious, value simplicity. |
Psychographic | Lifestyle, values, health priorities | Health enthusiasts, gut health focused, stress management seekers | Health enthusiasts: Fitness-focused, clean eating. Gut health: Interested in digestion and nutrition. Stress management: Seek relaxation and balance. |
Behavioral | Purchase habits, brand loyalty | Regular buyers, organic shoppers, fitness enthusiasts | Regular buyers: High repeat purchases. Organic shoppers: Eco-conscious, ingredient-focused. Fitness enthusiasts: Active, supplement users. |
Geographic | Region, urban/rural | Urban professionals, suburban families, rural communities | Urban: Convenience-focused, fast-paced. Suburban: Family-oriented, community-driven. Rural: Price-sensitive, traditional preferences. |
Automating this step is also possible.
I’ll give you a real example: Garnet and Gold is an apparel brand with a growing customer database of over 260,000 email contacts at that time.
With the advice of their marketing agency Sachs Media Group, the brand started using CRM software SharpSpring.
The platform was key to automatically organizing the messy contact list, sorting it out according to product categories. It also allowed for retroactive segmentation.
If the brand and its partner agency want to see past purchasing behavior, it creates a new list of contacts that meet this criterion.
Within 45 days of sending highly targeted messages, the brand generated 19,000 web visits, 1,286 orders, and $92,000 in additional revenue.
3. Test and optimize segments
Put your audience segments to the test once established.
It helps confirm whether your segmentation criteria accurately reflect your audience’s behaviors and preferences.
One segment doesn’t respond as expected? Reevaluate and be open to what data tells you.
Another way to see what works best for your audience? Try A/B testing, which is a common technique to compare marketing messages, offers, and designs.
Let’s say TammyBooster uses marketing automation and email marketing software Omnisend for this purpose.
The brand split tests two email subject lines targeting general wellness shoppers to see which this segment will respond to better: one emphasizes a particular health benefit and the other a limited-time offer.
You can learn from the winning subject line about what your segments prefer, and use the information to attract higher open rates for future campaigns.
Marketing automation software also helps when testing and optimizing your segments.
Mechanical watch manufacturer CODE41 uses HubSpot’s automation and advanced list segmentation to customize its messaging to target particular customer interests, even when sending in bulk.
With HubSpot’s help, the brand can send out 2.5 million emails a month, boosting ecommerce sales by 257%.
No matter how diverse your audience is, marketing automation helps you reach your segments across different platforms and touchpoints.
If you’re looking for tools to execute this step better, here’s our round-up of the best ecommerce marketing automation tools:
Meanwhile, email marketing software facilitates targeted communication with your audience segments.
Here are our top picks for email marketing solutions.
Together, they ensure consistent messaging is delivered to the right audience at the right time.
Final Thoughts
I hope that the audience segmentation examples, steps, and segmentation tools, mentioned above have gotten your wheels spinning for this strategy.
If you need more lessons on enhancing your ecommerce marketing, check out these helpful blog posts:
- How Digital Marketing Software Benefits Your Ecommerce Business?
- 25 Best Marketing Software Reviewed for 2024
- 10 Marketing Dashboard Examples & What They Track
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