Smart Consumers: A New Segment for Sustainable Digital Retailing in Korea

Abstract

Today’s smart consumers are intelligent consumers with multiple roles in the digital consumption environment. Consumer smartness refers to the multi-dimensional qualities that support various roles. Aiming to discover who the smart consumers are in the digital consumption context, this study classifies consumer segments based on consumer smartness and explores each segment’s profile in terms of demographic and behavioral characteristics. Using the data of 541 adult consumers, a clustering analysis generated four optimal clusters: Go-getters, Socialites, Realists, and Shopping-pococurante. Consumers with a higher level of consumer smartness were likely to have stronger shopping and sharing intentions, which indicates that smart consumers are active entities in the digital consumption context. This is the first attempt to segment today’s consumers carrying out multiple roles based on the concept of consumer smartness.