The difference between a customer, a client, and a consumer lies in how they interact with products.

Client: A person who has an ongoing relationship with a company or organization. A customer can be an individual or a company who deals repeatedly with the organization, such as someone who has a subscription to a particular service or deals regularly with a particular company.

Customer: A person who purchases a product or service in a particular situation, but may not have an ongoing relationship with the seller. A customer can be a transient, and may only buy the product once with no intention of returning or dealing again.

Consumer: A person who actually uses the product or benefits from the service. The consumer may be the same as the customer or client, but is not necessarily the one who purchased the product. For example, a parent may buy a toy for their child, so the child is the consumer while the parent is the customer.

In short, the customer is linked to an ongoing relationship, the customer is the one who buys the product, and the consumer is the one who uses it.