The term ‘end-user’ is generally used in economics, commerce and sociology to define a person that employs a particular service and/or product after this service/product has been fully developed, marketed, and installed. For example, the end-user of a computer system—such as an eCommerce platform, an interactive website platform or a software—is, quite simply, someone who utilizes it.
However, with the rise of experiential design growing focus on building human-centered types of designs and UX and on ensuring immersive and engaging types of customers experiences, end-users have acquired a pivotal role also during the product/service concepting and design phases as their characteristics, behaviors, and likes/dislikes are taken into account when building customer experiences efficient enough to both engage them meaningfully and grant them end user support throughout the full life cycle of that service/product.
As a digital growth agency, 80% of our clientele have prioritized eCommerce strategy and their digital presence as strategic areas of differentiation, which is why we would often utilize ‘end-user’ as a synonym to ‘customer’ and ‘consumer’.