Most online stores in the Gulf send the same message to everyone: the same discount, on the same day, to the loyal customer who orders every month and to the visitor who registered a year ago and never bought. The loyal customer did not need the discount, the dormant one ignores it, and the store pays for both. Customer segmentation fixes this. It means dividing customers into groups by what they actually do, then sending each group a message that fits. This guide covers the rules worth segmenting by, ten segments to build first, and how to use them across WhatsApp, app notifications, email and coupons, with examples from how Commera, the e-commerce platform built by S-Plus, handles each step.
What customer segmentation means for an online store
In a store, customer segmentation is the practice of grouping customers by shared characteristics so that marketing reaches the right people. The characteristics that matter most are behavioural: how often someone buys, how much they spend, when they last ordered, what they bought and how they prefer to be contacted. Demographic data such as city matters too, especially in the Gulf, where delivery times, courier coverage and even product preferences differ between Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai and Kuwait City.
Segmentation pays off in three ways:
- Lower cost per message. WhatsApp messages on Meta's platform are billed per delivered message, and every push notification or email to the wrong person erodes attention. Sending fewer, better-targeted messages costs less.
- Higher relevance. A customer who bought a coffee machine cares about capsules and descaling kits, not another machine.
- Protected margins. Discounts go only to customers who need a reason to buy, not to those who would have bought anyway.
The data your store already holds
You do not need a data team to segment. Your store already records everything required. The Customer Segments plugin in Commera ships with 24 ready-made rules, grouped in four families:
| Rule family | Examples of rules | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase behaviour | Number of orders, total spent, average order value, first and last order date, order source, payment method | Who is loyal, who is fading, who prefers cash on delivery |
| What they bought | A specific product, category or brand | Cross-sell and replenishment opportunities |
| Customer data | Registration date, city, has a mobile or email, newsletter subscriber | Where they are and how reachable they are |
| Contact channels | Accepts email, WhatsApp, SMS or push; has installed the app | Which channel you may use for each person |
Four more rules come from other plugins when they are active: loyalty points balance, wallet balance, Premium membership and having an abandoned cart. An important detail for accuracy: cancelled, failed and refunded orders are not counted in purchase history, so a customer whose only order was cancelled does not appear as a buyer.
Ten customer segmentation examples to build first
Start with segments that map to a clear action. These ten cover most stores:
| Segment | Rules | What to send |
|---|---|---|
| Lapsed customers | At least 2 orders, last order more than 90 days ago | A personal "we miss you" offer with a coupon limited to this segment |
| Top spenders | Total spent above a threshold you choose | Early access to new arrivals and sales |
| Registered, never bought | Number of orders: never | A first-order incentive and reassurance about delivery and returns |
| One-time buyers | Exactly 1 order, within the last 60 days | Complementary products to the first purchase |
| Category buyers | Bought from a specific category | New products and accessories in that category |
| Replenishment due | Bought a consumable product, last order 30 to 45 days ago | A reminder to reorder |
| City-based | City is Riyadh, or Jeddah, or Dubai | Same-day delivery offers, local events, branch openings |
| Cash-on-delivery users | Payment method is cash on delivery | Benefits of paying online or with instalments |
| App users | Has installed the app | App-only offers by push notification |
| Abandoned cart, high value | Has an abandoned cart (with the Abandoned Carts plugin active) | A personal follow-up rather than a generic reminder |
Adjust thresholds to your category. A supermarket in Kuwait may treat 14 days without an order as lapsed, while a furniture store in Doha may use a year.
How to build a segment step by step
- Name it. Give the segment an Arabic and an English name, and choose its type: dynamic or manual.
- Add rules. Pick the field, the comparison and the value. Comparisons fit each field: at least, at most, equals, between, within the last X days, more than X days ago, never, one of, not one of, contains, and yes or no.
- Choose how rules combine. The customer must match all rules, or any of them. "All" narrows the group; "any" widens it.
- Check the live preview. While building, you see how many customers will join and a sample with names, contact details and order counts, so you can confirm the rule brings in the people you mean.
- Save and use it. Pick it as an audience, attach it to a coupon or sync it to your email tool.
Dynamic or manual segments
Dynamic segments are re-evaluated every time they are read. A customer joins the moment they meet the conditions and leaves the moment they no longer do, so there are no stale lists to update by hand. The count shown in the list refreshes when you save the segment or press recount. Manual segments are for fixed lists, such as VIPs, partners or a test group: you search by name, email or mobile and add or remove customers yourself.
Safeguards that keep segments honest
A badly written rule is dangerous: one empty value could put your entire customer base in a segment and send everyone a discount meant for fifty people. In Commera, a rule that cannot be read or has an empty value matches nobody rather than everyone. Combined with the live preview, this makes mistakes visible before they cost money.
Using segments across your channels
A segment is only useful once it drives an action. In Commera, the same segment works in several places.
WhatsApp campaigns
Segments appear as an audience in WhatsApp campaigns. Instead of messaging every customer, you send a message about a new fragrance line to customers who bought from that brand, with the customer's name inserted. Campaigns include a test send to your own number, a monthly cap on marketing messages and a full log, and customers who turned off WhatsApp messages are skipped. Our guide to WhatsApp for business explains connection options and Meta's messaging rules.
App push notifications
With the Push Notifications plugin, sent from your own Firebase project, a segment can be the audience for a marketing campaign. You write a title and text, add an image up to 1 MB, see how many people will receive it before sending, send now or schedule it in the store's time zone, and decide where a tap leads: a product, a category, a link or a screen in the app such as the cart or wallet. Customers who switched off notifications are skipped.
Email through Mailchimp or Klaviyo
Email campaigns run from the email platform you already use. With the Email Marketing plugin, segments sync to Mailchimp as tags or to Klaviyo as profile properties, all of them or only the ones you choose, so your email campaigns and flows use the same segmentation as the store. The plugin also sends events such as new orders and abandoned carts, and can upload your catalogue for use in templates.
Coupons limited to a segment
On the coupon screen you can restrict a coupon to one segment. The discount then works only for members of that segment, and only after they log in. A 15% coupon for lapsed customers stays with lapsed customers, even if the code is shared in a group chat.
Exporting a segment
Any segment can be downloaded as a CSV file with name, email, phone and registration date, which is useful for a call campaign, an event invitation list or analysis in a spreadsheet.
Consent and contact channels
Segmentation also helps you stay on the right side of customer preferences and data-protection rules. Gulf countries have been tightening their personal data laws, including Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law and the UAE's federal data protection law, and Meta requires opt-in before you send WhatsApp templates. The contact-channel rules in Commera (accepts email, WhatsApp, SMS or push) let you build a separate audience per channel, so a customer who declined WhatsApp marketing is not in your WhatsApp campaign even if they belong to the segment. Treat this as a practical aid, and take legal advice on your specific obligations in each country.
Three Gulf scenarios
An abaya store in Riyadh before Ramadan
The store builds a dynamic segment of customers who bought from the abaya category in the last 12 months and accept WhatsApp messages, and a second segment of top spenders. Three weeks before Ramadan, top spenders get early access by WhatsApp; a week later, the broader category segment gets the collection launch. Registered customers who never bought get a push notification with a first-order coupon limited to their segment.
An electronics store in Dubai
Customers who bought a smartphone in the last 60 days form a segment for accessories: cases, chargers, earbuds. The message goes by push to app users and by email through Klaviyo to the rest, with the segment synced as a property. Nobody who bought a phone yesterday receives an offer for the same phone.
A supplements store in Kuwait
Supplements are consumed on a cycle. A segment of customers whose last order of a protein brand was 30 to 40 days ago receives a reorder reminder. A separate segment of customers with loyalty points above a set balance is reminded to redeem them, which brings them back without a new discount. Our article on customer loyalty programs covers points, wallets and memberships in detail.
How to measure whether segmentation works
- Compare against a broadcast. Run one campaign to a segment and note orders from that segment in the following week, against a previous message to all customers.
- Watch segment sizes over time. If the lapsed segment grows every month, retention is weakening, whatever the sales figures say.
- Track coupon use per segment. A segment-only coupon tells you exactly which group responded.
- Review the campaign logs. WhatsApp and push campaign logs show how many were targeted, delivered and failed.
Common segmentation mistakes
- Too many segments too early. Ten segments you use beat fifty you forget. Start with the table above.
- Overlapping messages. A customer can belong to several segments. Plan the calendar so one person does not receive three offers in one day.
- Ignoring channel consent. Always add the relevant "accepts" rule to campaign segments.
- Discounting the loyal. Top customers often respond better to early access and recognition than to price cuts.
- Never revisiting thresholds. Review the numbers each quarter as your store grows.
Frequently asked questions
Does a segment update automatically?
A dynamic segment does: its rules are evaluated every time it is read, so customers enter and leave as their behaviour changes. A manual segment changes only when you add or remove members.
How do I send an email campaign to a segment?
Through Mailchimp or Klaviyo: the Email Marketing plugin syncs your segments there as tags or properties, and you send the campaign from the email platform you already use.
Do cancelled orders count towards a customer's purchase history?
No. Cancelled, failed and refunded orders are excluded from purchase history rules, so totals and order counts reflect real purchases.
What happens if I write a rule incorrectly?
A rule that cannot be read or has an empty value matches nobody, so it cannot accidentally include your whole customer base. The live preview shows the count and a sample before you save.
Can I use loyalty points or wallet balance in segments?
Yes, when those plugins are active. Rules from other plugins include loyalty points balance, wallet balance, Premium membership and having an abandoned cart.
Start sending fewer, better messages
Customer segmentation is how a growing store keeps marketing personal: the right offer, to the right group, on a channel they agreed to. Commera brings the rules, the live preview and the channels together in one platform; explore it at commera.co. If you want help planning campaigns around your segments, S-Plus's digital marketing team in Riyadh works with stores across the Gulf. Pricing depends on your plan and plugins, so contact S-Plus to see segmentation running on your own customer data.
