IAES International Journal of Artificial Intelligence (IJ-AI)
Vol 15, No 4: August 2026

An empirical comparison of clustering approaches for recency, frequency, and monetary customer segmentation

Upekkha Lau (Institut Teknologi Bandung)
Meditya Wasesa (Institut Teknologi Bandung)



Article Info

Publish Date
01 Aug 2026

Abstract

This study evaluates effectiveness of three clustering techniques—k-means, hierarchical clustering, and density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN)—applied to the recency-frequency-monetary (RFM) model for customer segmentation in the retail sector. Using sales transaction data from a distributor of computer accessories and printing products. The results show that k-means achieved the best clustering validation scores and effectively identified high-value customers, hierarchical clustering generated less meaningful groupings than k-means, and DBSCAN misclassified key customers as noise. These findings highlight k-means as the most suitable technique for RFM-based segmentation in this retail business context. The study offers practical insights for retail and distribution businesses aiming to adopt data-driven customer strategies and suggests future research to enhance segmentation robustness and refine the RFM framework.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

IJAI

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Engineering

Description

IAES International Journal of Artificial Intelligence (IJ-AI) publishes articles in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The scope covers all artificial intelligence area and its application in the following topics: neural networks; fuzzy logic; simulated biological evolution algorithms (like ...