The Evaluation Clustering Algorithm of Iran's Online Shopping Consumer Market

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D Candidate, Department of Management, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Management, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Management, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Ahvaz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran

10.48308/jep.2024.234436.1163

Abstract

With the fast growth of e-commerce and the emerging new retail trend—online and offline integration—it is important to recognize the target market and satisfy customers with different needs by analyzing their online search behaviors. Accordingly, in this study, several internet companies in Iran were investigated. The companies were divided into 5 categories based on their product type: food, cosmetics and luxury goods, industrial goods and their accessories, sanitary goods, detergents, and clothing. Then the trading data of the companies in a certain period are analyzed. The data of this research includes customer transaction records from 2018 to 2019, after removing incomplete and missing data, this number has reached 349 records or the company. According to the inquiry from the Ministry of Mining Industry and Trade, there are 51,307 internet shopping and service sites and 36,200,000 internet buyers in the country.Clustering provides a good understanding of customer needs and helps identify potential customers. Dividing customers into sectors also increases the company's income. It is believed that retaining customers is more important than finding new customers. For example, companies can employ marketing strategies specific to a particular segment to retain customers. This study first performed RFM analysis on transaction data and then applied clustering using k-means. Then the results obtained from the methods were compared with each other.

Keywords


  • Receive Date: 11 January 2024
  • Revise Date: 13 July 2024
  • Accept Date: 31 July 2024
  • First Publish Date: 31 July 2024
  • Publish Date: 01 October 2024