As little as 1% of a retail website’s users generate as much as 40% of its revenues, according to new research.

The study, based on analysis of 950 million page views from more than 123 million website visits, found that while 1.06% of total visitors generate four tenths of a site’s income, there are a further 20% of site visitors who will never make a purchase.

Customer experience management platform Qubit, which conducted the research, broke down website users into different user types.

Sofa Surfers

17% of website users visit sites regularly, but never purchase. Their regular viewing times of 9am-11am and 1pm-5pm suggest that they might be stay-at-home parents or non-working individuals with plenty of time on their hands to surf their day away. They are twice as likely as your average site visitor to be surfing on an Apple device using the Safari browser and to be using a tablet. Geographically, these users tend to come from urban areas, although Londoners do not seem to be as prone as others to this behaviour.

Big Spenders

This core of loyal website fans make up just 0.03% of total users but create 30% of revenue. Intensely loyal to their chosen retailer, they visit their preferred sites 300 times more often than the average user. They are 20% more likely than the average to be using a tablet, but are 10 times less likely to be visiting via a mobile. These users shop between 1pm-3pm during the day, but will also spend up to 20 times longer than the average user surfing between midnight and 4am. These users are 23% less likely than average to come from central London but are over-represented in the city’s suburbs, in particular in Ealing, where more than twice the average number reside.

Basket Cases

A strange retail breed, the basket case comes to a site and fills their shopping basket but never completes their purchase. They only represent 2.46% of users, but generate no revenue for the retailer. They tend to use Google’s Chrome browser, which has a younger user base that is happy to shop around, perhaps explaining their bizarre on-site behaviour. These users come from the Midlands and northwest, particularly from Birmingham, being 50% more likely than average to come from that area. They are also largely nocturnal, with their web usage focused around 7pm-3am.

Speedy Shoppers

Making up 1.03% of users, the focused few generate 10% of total revenues, making them the second most valuable segment. These users visit a site and make a purchase with no messing around and seemingly little consideration. While Mancunians rarely display this behaviour, people from northeast London seem to be keen on this sort of focused shopping. They are 18% more likely to be using a mobile and tend to surf via Internet Explorer or Chrome.

The research findings were developed using analysis from Qubit’s ‘big data’ retail analytics and personalisation platform. This collects and analyses information about behavioural trends among website users and then lets retailers serve up personalised websites based on that insight.

Qubit chief executive Graham Cooke said: “By breaking down online shoppers into these different personas its easy to see where retailers should be focusing their efforts.

“Sofa surfers and basket cases show all the traits of ‘real’ shoppers and if you’re not analysing your audience properly you’ll never know that they’re giving you nothing back.

“By understanding what people are doing on your site, and whether or not they’re going to turn into paying customers, you can make more informed decisions about where to invest your marketing budget.

“Conversely, it’s vital that you encourage and embrace your big spenders and the speedy shoppers because these tiny segments are driving a massive percentage of your revenue.”

The data was released to mark the launch of the latest version of the company’s customer experience management platform.