Customer Groups are created by defining criteria that determine which customers belong in the group. Read our guide Customer groups to understand how to create customer groups before reading on.
Criteria describe the behaviour or attributes a customer must meet to be included in a group. This can include things like how often a customer visits, how much they spend, when they last visited, or what products they purchase.
By combining different criteria, you can create highly targeted segments that reflect real customer behaviour.
Customer inclusion
The first criteria you will select when creating a group is Customer inclusion. This determines which types of customers the group should consider.
Most groups will use Known customers, which includes customers who have shared identifiable information such as their name, email, or phone number. These are great for most automations which target customers.
Depending on your use case, you may also choose to include unknown or both known and unknown customers. This can be useful when analysing general visit behaviour for metrics.
Adding criteria
After selecting customer inclusion, you can begin adding criteria that define the behaviour required for a customer to belong to the group.
Each criteria row represents a condition based on customer data. Some common examples include:
Total visits
Total spend
First visited
Last visited
Products purchased
Marketing preferences
For example, you might create a group that captures customers who visited three or more times in the last month and have visited recently.
Within a single criteria block, each condition is combined using AND logic. This means a customer must meet all criteria within that block to qualify.
Using additional blocks
In some cases you may want customers to qualify for a group through different sets of criteria. To do this, you can add another block. Each block represents a separate set of criteria.
Blocks are combined using OR logic, meaning a customer can belong to the group if they match any one of the blocks.
For example, a group could capture customers who are either:
Frequent visitors, or
High spend customers
Blocks make it possible to build more flexible segments when needed, but many groups can be created using a single set of criteria.
Tips for building effective groups
When creating groups, it’s often best to start simple and refine the criteria over time.
A good approach is to:
Start with one or two key behaviours
Review how many customers appear in the group
Add additional criteria if you need to narrow the audience
Clear group names also make it easier to understand the purpose of each segment later.
Examples of Groups to build
Examples of Groups to build
Customers with 3 visits who are frequent
Weekday morning regulars (VIPs)
Regular coffee drinkers - 3 or more coffee visits in the last month
Customers who have not visited in the last 60 days but have visited 3 or more times (Disengaged customers)
What to do next
Once your criteria are defined, Customer Groups can be used to power automations and targeted campaigns.
For example, you might trigger a reward for frequent visitors or send a win-back message to customers who haven’t returned recently.
Learn more in Using Customer Groups in Automations and Campaigns.