Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data Analytics

This research aims at examining the progress of retail demand forecasting and customer classification via regression models and RFM analysis in the retail chain industry. Entailing actual retail sales data, this work utilizes three regression models:—MLP Regressor, Ridge Regressor, and KNN Regressor...

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Main Author: Juan Tang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/20/2/59
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author Juan Tang
author_facet Juan Tang
author_sort Juan Tang
collection DOAJ
description This research aims at examining the progress of retail demand forecasting and customer classification via regression models and RFM analysis in the retail chain industry. Entailing actual retail sales data, this work utilizes three regression models:—MLP Regressor, Ridge Regressor, and KNN Regressor to forecast sales. Of them, the MLP Regressor yielded the least Mean Squared Error (MSE = 2.66 × 10) and the best coefficient of determination (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.9398) stressing its ability to identify deviations from linearity in the sales data. Also, RFM analysis, augmented by K-Means clustering, successfully categorized customers into actionable segments: loyal customers, champions, at-risk, and hibernating. Exploratory data analysis (EDA) findings indicated dramatic changes in sales and revenue, activities, and customer interactions, and products. The combined application of these approaches offers operational solutions in product acquisition, marketing communication, and revenue enhancement. The study advances current research by integrating predictive regression models with RFM segmentation, offering a dual-framework that enhances retail demand forecasting and customer behavior analysis, thereby bridging a critical gap in data-driven decision-making. However, bearing in mind that the lack of demographic data and limited feature variety may constrain the model’s ability to capture personalized customer behaviors, the findings provide a foundation for integrating more diverse datasets and advanced learning approaches for improved retail analytics.
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spelling doaj-art-b87162e353084dceb262edc12278aadd2025-08-20T03:27:25ZengMDPI AGJournal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research0718-18762025-03-012025910.3390/jtaer20020059Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data AnalyticsJuan Tang0School of Management, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing 210003, ChinaThis research aims at examining the progress of retail demand forecasting and customer classification via regression models and RFM analysis in the retail chain industry. Entailing actual retail sales data, this work utilizes three regression models:—MLP Regressor, Ridge Regressor, and KNN Regressor to forecast sales. Of them, the MLP Regressor yielded the least Mean Squared Error (MSE = 2.66 × 10) and the best coefficient of determination (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.9398) stressing its ability to identify deviations from linearity in the sales data. Also, RFM analysis, augmented by K-Means clustering, successfully categorized customers into actionable segments: loyal customers, champions, at-risk, and hibernating. Exploratory data analysis (EDA) findings indicated dramatic changes in sales and revenue, activities, and customer interactions, and products. The combined application of these approaches offers operational solutions in product acquisition, marketing communication, and revenue enhancement. The study advances current research by integrating predictive regression models with RFM segmentation, offering a dual-framework that enhances retail demand forecasting and customer behavior analysis, thereby bridging a critical gap in data-driven decision-making. However, bearing in mind that the lack of demographic data and limited feature variety may constrain the model’s ability to capture personalized customer behaviors, the findings provide a foundation for integrating more diverse datasets and advanced learning approaches for improved retail analytics.https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/20/2/59data analysisK-nearest neighbors regressionridge regressionRFM customer segmentationregression modelingmulti-layer perceptron
spellingShingle Juan Tang
Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data Analytics
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
data analysis
K-nearest neighbors regression
ridge regression
RFM customer segmentation
regression modeling
multi-layer perceptron
title Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data Analytics
title_full Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data Analytics
title_fullStr Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data Analytics
title_full_unstemmed Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data Analytics
title_short Unlocking Retail Insights: Predictive Modeling and Customer Segmentation Through Data Analytics
title_sort unlocking retail insights predictive modeling and customer segmentation through data analytics
topic data analysis
K-nearest neighbors regression
ridge regression
RFM customer segmentation
regression modeling
multi-layer perceptron
url https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/20/2/59
work_keys_str_mv AT juantang unlockingretailinsightspredictivemodelingandcustomersegmentationthroughdataanalytics