What Customer Segments Exist, and How Has Their Behaviour Evolved?

What Customer Segments Exist, and How Has Their Behaviour Evolved?

Customer segmentation becomes much more meaningful when it is studied over time. Knowing that a business serves families, couples, domestic travellers or international customers provides only a snapshot. The more important question is whether these groups remain stable, and how their purchasing and transaction behaviour changes as market conditions evolve.

This article draws on the longitudinal transaction analysis undertaken in Elle Tick's Dissertation, examining customer behaviour across the 2017–2025 period. The findings show that the customer base has remained strongly family-oriented, but the proportion of couples has increased considerably. At the same time, booking lead times and distribution channels have experienced substantial changes.

What Customer Segments Exist?

The analysis identifies Family and Couple as the two principal customer segments. Families were the dominant group throughout the period, but their relative share declined toward 2025 as the couple segment expanded.

The change from 32.8% couples in 2017 to 44.3% in 2025 is particularly important for understanding customer segment evolution. The market did not simply grow; its composition changed.

This is why effective customer segmentation should combine customer demographics with behavioural variables. Two customers may belong to the same demographic group but demonstrate very different booking patterns, trip lengths and channel preferences.

Customer Behaviour Evolution Across the Period

The dissertation data also reveals substantial changes in customer transaction behaviour. Booking lead time and distribution channel provide particularly useful indicators.

In 2017, customers typically planned considerably further ahead. The median booking window was approximately 80 days. This declined to around 23 days in 2020 before recovering to approximately 69 days by 2025.

The sharp decline around 2020 reflects an exceptional disruption rather than a permanent change in customer preferences. Customers became more cautious about making long-term commitments, demonstrating how external conditions can rapidly influence customer purchasing behaviour.

The distribution-channel results are equally revealing. Direct transactions accounted for almost all recorded transactions in 2017. By 2020, the direct share had fallen to 71.9%, and by 2022 it was approximately 32.6%. By 2025, direct transactions had recovered to 56.1%.

This suggests that the customer journey has become more complex. Customers are no longer necessarily following a single direct purchasing route; intermediaries and alternative channels can play a much larger role.

What Do Changing Customer Preferences Tell Us?

Rental duration provides another useful behavioural signal. While the median rental length remained relatively stable at around 10–11 days, the mean increased from 11.3 days in 2017 to 13.1 days in 2025.

This distinction matters. A stable median suggests that the typical customer has not fundamentally changed the length of their trip, while the higher mean indicates that a growing proportion of customers are taking longer rentals.

For businesses, this creates opportunities for more sophisticated behavioural segmentation. Instead of simply targeting “families” or “couples”, customers can be grouped according to combinations of segment characteristics, booking timing, rental duration, geography and purchasing channel.

Why Customer Value Should Be Considered

Segment size alone does not determine commercial importance. A smaller customer segment may generate greater customer value if its members book earlier, rent for longer periods, spend more or return more frequently.

This makes customer retention an important part of the segmentation process. A longitudinal dataset can reveal whether customers are simply increasing in number or whether they are becoming more valuable over time.

For practitioners, the key lesson is to track segment-level indicators such as repeat purchases, booking lead time, rental duration, acquisition channel and revenue contribution. This transforms segmentation from a descriptive exercise into a decision-making tool.

What the Future of Customer Segment Evolution May Look Like

Her Dissertation suggest that the future of customer segmentation lies beyond broad demographic categories.

A family booking six months in advance represents a different commercial opportunity from a family making a last-minute reservation. Likewise, a couple taking a two-week international rental behaves differently from a couple taking a short domestic trip.

Consequently, customer behaviour evolution should be monitored continuously rather than treated as a one-time segmentation exercise. Customer demographics explain who the customers are; transaction data increasingly explains how they behave.

Conclusion

The longitudinal evidence from Elle Tick's Dissertation demonstrates that customer segments are dynamic. Families remain the largest segment, but couples have grown substantially. Booking behaviour has moved through periods of considerable volatility, while rental duration has gradually shifted toward longer trips. Distribution channels have also become more diverse.

The central lesson is straightforward: customer segment evolution cannot be understood from demographics alone. Businesses need to examine purchasing behaviour, transaction patterns, booking timing, rental duration and the wider customer journey.

By combining these dimensions, organisations can identify not only who their customers are today, but how their preferences and behaviour are likely to shape tomorrow's market.