This article will cover the various types & examples of Customer Segments tailored to digital business models. 

Customer Segments is one of the sections of the popular Business Model Canvas tool.

Overview

(1) Types of Customer Segments

(2) Examples of Customer Segments

The best way to understand Customer Segments within Digital Business Models is through the following types:

• Geographic: from country-level down to suburb/zipcode depending on purpose and available data accuracy

• Demographic: Age, gender, family situation, occupation / income bracket, etc

• Behavioural: usage/consumption behaviours, spending behaviours, search/discovery behaviours

• Interest: interests on platform and off-platform (to the extent that the latter can be tracked)

• Technology: used technologies, device type(s), OS, home/mobile, screen size, etc

• Persona-based segmentation: profiling typical customer personality traits

• Micro segmentation based on digital data + combinations of the above

• Platform business models also need to segment the supply side into relevant dimensions

• and more

Now let’s take a look at examples of Customer Segments. The best way to do so is - as always - by looking at concrete, vertical-specific examples.

eCommerce

Examples of digital businesses in the eCommerce vertical include Amazon, Etsy, Wayfair and thousands of others.

Customer Segments examples Amazon: 

A big difference between traditional retail and eCommerce is the lack of staff to help with decision making, support, returns, etc. Amazon has some of the following in place instead

• Geographic:

  • US: metropolitan, cities, rural

  • Other countries with developed transport infrastructures

  • Rest of world

• Demographic:

  • Age, gender, family situation, occupation

• Behavioural:

  • Product range

  • Convenience seeker

  • Price conscious

• and more

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Content & Media

Examples of digital businesses in the Content & Media vertical include Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Medium, Apple News and many more:

Customer Segments examples Netflix:

• User segmentation based on usage parameters:

  • Technology:

    • Device type TV, laptop, Tablet

    • Screen size

    • Connection type/speed

  • Viewing behaviours, e.g. home, on-the-go, weekend/weekday patterns, binge watcher, etc

• Micro segmentation into 2,000 taste clusters determined by viewing history

• and more

Sharing economy

Examples of digital businesses in the Asset & Service Sharing (=Sharing Economy) vertical include Uber, DoorDash, Airbnb among others:

Customer Segments examples Uber: 

As a platform business model Airbnb has to make sure to segment both key participant types are covered in the “customer” sections segment: guests and hosts.

Potential ways to segment guests:

• By geo-demographic

• Behavioural

• Trip type: Business travel; leisure travel; visiting friends/family; backpacking

  1. Rental type: Shared space; private room; entire home/apartment

  2. Accompanying guests: Number & type (spouse, kids, parents, etc)

• Motivation-based: primary reasons for using Airbnb (more shortly)

• Interest: Types of activities that travellers engage in (esp leisure), particularly interesting for Airbnb Experiences / Online Experiences

Potential ways to segment hosts:

• Geo-demographic: see above

• By rental type and type of accommodation provided:

  • Private room, entire place; room, unit/condo, house, unique stays

  • Tier: Plus, Luxe, for Work

• By location type and characteristics: Urban, suburban, rural, exact location, proximity to amenities, etc

• and more

Online Travel

Examples of digital businesses in the Online Travel Agencies (OTA) vertical include Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Expedia:

Customer Segments examples Booking.com:

Let’s start with ways to segment hotels & accommodation providers:

• Property types: hotel, resort, apartment, villa, hostel, motel

• Room types offered

• Star rating 1-5; user rating 1-10

• Amenities, hotel facilities, room facilities

• Proximity to sights (or remoteness)

• Type of hotel: Independent, small chain, large chain,

There are many ways to segment travel customers:

• Travel motivation: Leisure, business, group

• Demographics: Age group, gender, marital status, kids, income bracket, lifestyle, etc

• Booking details: length of stay, how many days prior booked, booking device, booking location, package/accommodation only

• and more

Social Media & Search

Examples of digital businesses in the Social Media vertical includes Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, X. Examples of Search Platforms include Google, Bing and others.

Customer Segments examples Google:

As a platform business model Google needs to segment each of the key participant types:

Search users:

• Geographic, geo-demographic, interest

• Behaviour, Technology: device type, by used browser, screen sizes, user behaviour, etc

Website owners:

• By vertical

• Keyword clusters: Which keyword clusters (and actual keywords therein) do the respective pages aim to serve

• Type of page: commercial / non-commercials, education, news, blog, brand, creative / artist, etc

Advertisers:

• Geography, industry and company size

• Ad formats, campaign types, advertising tools used and other technical usage factors

Software-as-a-Service:

Examples of digital businesses in the Software-as-a-Service vertical include Salesforce, most Adobe products and hundreds of thousands more cloud-based software products:

Customer Segments examples productivity SaaS:

• By the user vertical (for corporate customers): there will be big differences in how firms from different sectors use the same tool (e.g., a chip manufacturer will use a project management software very differently compared to a software development company, a marketing company or a bank).

• Large vs small companies: there will be differences between large and small companies.

  • Within this there can also be different team sizes and this directly ties back to the pricing model of most SaaS solutions

• Individuals & small teams