Segmenting the online consumer market

Purpose – The internet has become mainstream in everyday communications and transactions. This research aims to provide a segmentation analysis for the online market based on the various uses of the internet.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the online consumer segmentation literature is first conducted. Survey method and cluster analysis techniques are used in the empirical study. A sample of 407 participants that belonged to a large consumer panel adequately responded to an online survey and provided their pattern of internet use, internet experience, and psychological characteristics.Findings – The analysis shows that the online consumers form three global segments: the basic communicators (consumers that use the internet mainly to communicate via e‐mail), the lurking shoppers (consumers that employ the internet to navigate and to heavily shop), and the social thrivers (consumers that exploit more the internet interactive features to socially interact by means of chatting, blogging, video strea...