Customers who purchase goods and services for their own use are called consumers.

Quick Scoop

When someone buys a product or service not to resell it or use it in a business, but simply for themselves or their household, they are referred to as a consumer. This is the standard term used in marketing, economics, and business studies.

A few helpful contrasts:

  • A consumer buys for personal or household use, not for resale or production.
  • An organizational buyer (or business customer) buys goods and services for business operations, resale, or production.
  • The same person can be a consumer in one situation (buying groceries for home) and an organizational buyer in another (buying office supplies for a company).

So, in exam-style questions like:

“Customers who purchase goods and services for their own use are called _____.”

the correct one-word answer is: consumers.

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