Customer Segmentation using RFM Analysis

How well do you know your customers? Whether you operate in a B2B or B2C space, chances are that 80% of your business comes from just 20% of your customers (Pareto's Principle). According to a study by Forbes, acquiring new customers costs five times more than retaining the existing ones. Identifying high-value customers is crucial to increase revenue and building brand loyalty.

Customer Segmentation is a critical strategy for businesses to understand and engage with customers effectively. Understanding the behavioral patterns of customers can help personalize the purchases they make and cater to their needs better. 

Questions like who are the customers who contribute more to sales, who are the customers about to churn, will help digital marketers understand the behavioral patterns of their customers. 

While there are many criteria based on which the customer base can be segmented, this solution focuses on segmenting customers based on the RFM analysis.

What is RFM Analysis?

RFM analysis (Recency, Frequency and Monetary) is a method used to identify and segment existing customers based on their purchasing behavior.  The key metrics of RFM analysis include

Recency

Recency refers to how recently a customer has made their purchase and this is the most important metric of the other metrics. This metric is a strong indicator of customer loyalty and interest.

Frequency

Frequency refers to how often a customer makes purchases or interacts with a business within a specific period. It measures the level of engagement and loyalty of a customer.

Monetary

Monetary value refers to the total amount of money a customer has spent with a business during a specific period. 

Industry-Specific Applications of RFM Analysis

• SaaS and subscription services: RFM analysis can be adapted for SaaS and subscription services to segment users based on engagement, renewals, and revenue contribution.
  
• Financial Sector: RFM analysis can improve credit scoring and risk assessment by evaluating customer transaction patterns, helping financial institutions make more informed loan approval decisions.
  

Data Requirements

For RFM analysis, you'll need a transactional dataset with the following equivalent columns (details) 

• A product (Product ID)
  
• A related transaction (Transaction ID)
  
• Number of products purchased in a transaction (Product Quantity)
  
• The product purchase price (Product Price)
  
• Transaction date (Date)
  
• Customer who made the purchase (Customer ID, Customer Name)
  

We have used a sample table of e-commerce data for illustration.

Steps for Implementing RFM analysis

1. Gather and Prepare Transaction Data : 

Gather all transaction data, ensuring it includes customer identifiers, transaction dates, and monetary amounts, and address missing or inconsistent values, ensuring data integrity before analysis.

2. Compute RFM Metrics: 

To segment customers based on their behavior, we compute three key metrics: Recency (R), Frequency (F), and Monetary Value (M). Below are SQL queries for each, along with detailed explanations.

Recency (R)

Recency measures how recently a customer made a purchase. It is calculated as the number of days since their last transaction. Customers with recent purchases are more engaged, while those who haven’t bought in a long time may be at risk of churn.

The time frame for RFM analysis should be tailored to your business model and industry. Choosing the right period for RFM analysis is essential, as it directly influences the accuracy of customer segmentation and the quality of insights derived.

Frequency (F)

Frequency tracks how often a customer makes purchases within a specific period. A higher frequency indicates a loyal customer who regularly shops, while a lower frequency suggests occasional or one-time buyers.

Monetary Value (M)

The total amount spent by the customer in the same period

RFM Query Table

SELECT "Customer ID", "Customer Name", DAYS_BETWEEN(MAX("Transaction Date"), CURRENT_DATE()) AS "Recency", COUNT ("Order ID") AS "Frequency", SUM("Transaction Amount") AS "Monetary Value" FROM  "Customer Data"  GROUP BY "Customer ID",   "Customer Name"  ORDER BY "Recency" ASC,   "Frequency" DESC, "Monetary Value" DESC

3. Segment Customers using Cluster Analysis

Manual scoring can skew the results and may not be practical for handling large volumes of data. In contrast, using machine learning algorithms like cluster analysis ensures unbiased, efficient, and data-driven segmentation. Unlike traditional scoring methods such as the quantile or percentile-based approach, cluster analysis recognizes inherent relationships and patterns in the data. With cluster analysis, business can obtain accurate segmentation and devise targeted strategies to improve sales and customer retention.

Follow the below steps to apply cluster analysis,

1. Click the Create New icon and choose New chart from the drop-down menu.
   
2. Add the columns to the chart shelf as shown below,
   
1. X-axis: Customer Name
   
2. Y-axis: Monetary Value with Sum function.
   
3. Click Generate Graph and change the chart type to bar chart.
   
   
4. Click the Analysis icon and select Cluster Analysis > Add Clusters.
   
5. The Model is chosen automatically based on the columns dropped in the shelves.
   
6. By default, the columns dropped in the shelves (Monetary Value) are selected as factors. Click the drop-down icon to include Recency and Frequency columns as factors.
   
   
7. The number of clusters is determined automatically but can be adjusted based on business needs and specific customer segmentation goals to ensure optimal categorization.
   
8. Choose the Normalization method to prevent values of high ranges from dominating the results. For instance, Recency (measured in days) and Monetary Value (measured in currency) have different scales, and normalization ensures a balanced contribution from each metric.
9. Click Apply.
   
   

4. Export Clusters Data

Once the customer profiles have been segmented using cluster analysis, Export the Current view in the preferred table format to build more data visualizations to understand the clusters.

Build an RFM Analysis Dashboard

The RFM analysis dashboard provides a comprehensive view of customer behavior. Let's look at the steps involved in building this dashboard.

1. Import the Clusters Data

Import the downloaded clusters table back into Zoho Analytics using the files option as given below.

1. Click the New icon on the side navigation panel and choose New Table/ Import Data.
   
2. Select files and choose the Clusters Table to import and click Next.
   
3. A data preview will be displayed; verify the data types of columns and click Create.
   

2. Create Reports to Understand the Characteristics of the Clusters

While the data is clustered, understanding the characteristics of each cluster is what enables businesses to take strategic actions. This includes identifying which customers need targeted marketing, personalized engagement, or retention efforts. Recognizing patterns within clusters provides insights into customer behavior, which is essential for optimizing marketing campaigns, improving retention strategies, and enhancing customer experience.

The below reports help understand the distribution of customers across different monetary value, recency and frequency segments within each cluster.

Clusters vs Monetary Value 

1. Access the cluster table (imported data) and click the new icon > chart view.
   
2. Drag and drop the columns as given below:
   
1. X-axis - Clusters
   
2. Y-axis - Monetary Value with the Count function.
   
3. Color - Monetary Value with the Actual Range function.
   
   

Analyzing the chart, we can infer that,

• Cluster 1 consists of a diverse group of customers spanning all spending levels.
  
• Cluster 2 includes moderate to high spenders who contribute significantly to revenue.
  
• Cluster 3 comprises low to mid-range spenders, often occasional buyers.
  
• Cluster 4 represents high-value customers with premium spending habits.
  
• Cluster 5 consists primarily of low spenders with minimal purchasing activity.
  

You can similarly create reports to know about the distribution of customers for the Recency and Frequency metrics.

The below table lists the characteristics of clusters

Cluster	Cluster Classification	Recency	Frequency	Monetary	Recommended actions
Cluster 1	Needs Attention	100 to 150 days	Low to Moderate	Diverse spending	Re-engagement campaigns, discounts, or reminders to encourage repeat purchases.
Cluster 2	Loyalist	0-50 (Highly Active)	High	Consistent moderate-to-high spenders	Loyalty programs, exclusive deals, early access to new products to maintain engagement.
Cluster 3	Potential Loyalist	0-50 (Active)	Low to Moderate	Budget-conscious, occasional buyers	Cross-selling, personalized recommendations, and value-based promotions.
Cluster 4	Champions	100-150 (Inactive)	Moderate to High (Frequent buyers)	High spenders	VIP experiences, personalized services, and premium offers to retain and enhance their spending.
Cluster 5	Hibernating	Mostly inactive or infrequent	Low	Minimal spending	Win-back campaigns, incentives, special discounts, and targeted ads to regain interest.

Based on the above table, you can give specific labels to the clusters using the bucket columns option.

RFM Dashboard

Limitations & Considerations of RFM Analysis

While RFM analysis is a powerful customer segmentation tool, businesses should be aware of certain limitations and factors that can influence results:

• Data Freshness and Relevance: RFM analysis relies on transactional data, making the freshness and relevance of this data crucial for accurate customer segmentation. Setting up automated data imports ensures real-time updates, reducing the risk of working with stale data.
  
• Seasonal Variations: Customer purchasing behavior often fluctuates due to seasonal trends, holidays, and industry-specific cycles, which can impact RFM scores and lead to misleading segmentation if not accounted for properly. Instead of analyzing only recent months, compare customer behavior for the same period in previous years to detect true engagement patterns.

• Topic Participants

• Nisha Angel J

  

• Hammer Group

• Juan

• Sticky Posts

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - February 2026

  Hello Users! We're back with another round of updates for Zoho Analytics. This month's release focuses on giving you greater flexibility in how you visualize, manage, and act on your data - with new features like custom visualizations, remote MCP server,

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - January 2026

  Hello Users! We are starting the year with a strong lineup of updates, marking the beginning of many improvements planned to enhance your analytics experience. Explore the latest improvements built to boost performance, simplify analysis, and help you

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - November 2025

  We're thrilled to announce a significant update focused on expanding your data connectivity, enhancing visualization capabilities, and delivering a more powerful, intuitive, and performant analytics experience. Here’s a look at what’s new. Explore What's

• What's New in Zoho Analytics - October 2025

  Hello Users! We're are back with a fresh set of updates and enhancements to make data analysis faster and more insightful. Take a quick look at what’s new and see how these updates can power up your reports and dashboards. Explore What's New! Extreme

• What’s New in Zoho Analytics – September 2025

  Hello Users!! In this month’s update, we’re raising the bar across multiple touchpoints, from how you bring in data, plan and track projects to how you design and brand your dashboards. We’ve added the all-new Gantt chart for project visualization, expanded

• Recent Topics

• Zoho mail admin panel not opening

• Zoho CRM WooCommerce Integrtation

  Looking for a solution for my 50 client to show detailed analytics on source of traffic that led to events, leads, conversions. Hi all, I have not been able to find a workable guide or solution to how exactly step by step integrate the Zoho CRM with WooCommerce

• Attaching files to emails within CRM Deals.

  Hello, We have recently started using the extension "Workdrive for CRM" (Related List) to view/store our documents for each Deal, instead of using Attachments. Overall it feels like a better way to go but the user experience is not so great when it comes

• 500 internal server error on opening an iframe through a deluge script

  Hi Team I am trying to open an external url in an iframe through my deluge script which is associated to a custom button . By doing this i am getting an "Internal Server Error" . Please can you help me with this.

• Kaizen #225 - Making Query-based Custom Related Lists Actionable with Lookups and Links

  Hello everyone! Welcome back to another post in the Kaizen series! This week, we will discuss an exciting enhancement in Queries in Zoho CRM. In Kaizen #190, we discussed how Queries bridge gaps where native related lists fall short and power custom related

• Filter button in the Zoho Sheet Android App doesn't toggle on

  I am a new Zoho Sheets user and experiencing a specific issue with the filter functionality in the Android mobile application. Detailed Issue Description: The filter icon appears correctly in the toolbar. Upon tapping the filter icon/button, the toggle

• Is Zoho Sites still actively being developed?

  Hello, Is Zoho Sites still actively being developed as part of the Zoho ecosystem? I noticed that the What's New page (https://www.zoho.com/sites/whats-new.html) does not show any updates since Q1 2025. We were considering migrating our website from Squarespace

• Project Notifcatiion Emails - Milestone

  Hello: I cannot get myself, or most importantly my portal client user to recieve an email upon completion of a milestone. I have set up our 1st project. I have set up a test client user. (accepted the invitation and is listed in the system as a client

• Zoho Forms - Feature Request - Year Field

  Hi Zoho Forms Team, You currently have the following date and time fields: Date Time Date and Time Year and Month It would be useful if you could include a "Year" field For example a recent application I completed said "What year was your house built?"

• Integrate Excel or Zoho Sheet functions / calculations to CRM product module

  Hello Community, I hope someone more experienced can help me with this question. Our price / payment plan calculations are in an Excel spreadsheet and I would like to use all those functions / calculations in my Products module. So when we send a quote

• Sync CRM Contacts to USER'S contacts on Office 365

  I can see that the O365 sync is transferring contacts backwards and forwards between Zoho CRM and Office365. But it has created a separate address book in Office 365 called "Zoho CRM Contacts". This address book is not used by Office/Outlook's email function

• Manage Every Customer Conversation from Every Channel inside Zoho SalesIQ

  Your customers message you from everywhere. But are you really able to track, manage, and follow through on every conversation, without missing anything? With interactions coming in from websites, mobile apps, and messaging platforms like WhatsApp and

• Zoho Books | Product updates | February 2026

  Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From Advanced Reporting Tags to the ability to mark projects as completed, explore the latest updates designed to improve your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Advanced Reporting

• This project could not be synced because it is not associated with a primary client

  When I go to ProjectName->Finance I receive a "This project could not be synced because it is not associated with a primary client" error. The project has been associated in ZohoCRM with the client. How can I set the primary client for this project. Other

• Update latitude & longitude address field API

  How do I update the coordinates of an address field from a widget? I can't modify the latitude and longitude of the address field. I think the problem is how I'm writing formdata variable. zoho_init.then(function (data) { var queryParams = ZOHO.CREATOR.UTIL.getQueryParams();

• Zoho Forms - Feature Request - Past Into Scanning/OCR Field

  Hi Zoho Forms Team, You recently introduced the OCR/Scanning field which I have found great use for with one client who receives work orders as a screenshot from one customer. I want to raise a feature request here which would make that field even more

• inability to use different primary address on invoice per location

  my company operates in two different locations with different email address. The problems then is the inability to edit the primary to suite the invoice for the second location.

• Use Zoho Creator as a source for merge templates in Zoho Writer

  Hello all! We're excited to share that we've enhanced Zoho Creator's integration with Zoho Writer to make this combination even more powerful. You can now use Zoho Creator as a data source for mail merge templates in Zoho Writer. Making more data from

• Anyone in Australia using Zoho Books AND has their account with NAB?

  Hi I have an account with both NAB and Suncorp. Suncorp transaction come in the next day however NAB transactions take 4-5 business days to appear. eg: A deposit made today in my Suncorp will be imported into Zoho tomorrow. A deposit made today to the NAB account will be imported maybe Saturday (Friday overnight). I have contacted both Zoho and NAB but noone seems to know why. I was just wondering if anyone else in Australia uses NAB and has this issue (or doesn't) maybe we could compare notes and

• Detailed Balance Sheet for tax preparer

  I'm using the free edition of Zoho Books. My tax preparer is asking for "detailed" Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet reports which include all the activity and transactions within the various categories. The default reports do not include these details.

• Zoho Projects - Cloning a task does not trigger task workflow when created

  Hello! I have a Project where my team uses a set of tasks from a tasklist as templates, so we could simply clone it and drag it to another list in kanban view to avoid creating a new one from scratch. The process works well, but after cloning it the new

• Host Group Appointments Online in Zoho Bookings

  Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re excited to announce a new enhancement to Group Booking that makes hosting online group events smoother and more professional than ever. You can now conduct online group events with auto-generated meeting links

• Can't rename groups on Mac desktop app

  I'm working on an up-to-date Mac with a freshly downloaded Notebook app. I'm trying to rename a group within a notebook. Here I have, left to right, a note, a group, and a note. I select the group. On the top left, I select Action. On the dropdown, "Rename"

• Workdrive Collaboration with an External User

  I would like to know if I can setup a collaboration space with an external user in workdrive or do I need to add them as a user on my system? If I need to add them, can I add them on Workdrive only and give limit access to our space only?

• FSM integration with Books

  Hi, I have spent a few months working with FSM and have come across a critical gap in the functionality, which I find almost shocking....either that, or I am an idiot. The lack of bi-directional sync between Books and FSM on Sales Orders/ Work Orders

• Marketing Tip #23: Help customers with how-to guides and usage tips

  Customers don’t stop needing you after they place an order. Helping customers use your product correctly and confidently can improve satisfaction, reduce returns, and increase repeat purchases. Sharing simple how-to guides, usage tips, or care instructions

• Powering Customer Support with our women

  In Zoho Desk support, women make up 50% of our team. We see this as one of our strengths, reflecting the spirit of this year’s theme, "Give to Gain". Our women find their balance Women carry many responsibilities — they represent frontline support, lead

• Function #25: Automatically generate purchase orders from a sales order

  We kicked off the "Function Fridays" series with the goal of helping you automate your everyday accounting tasks. As we delve into today's post, I'm delighted to announce that we're here to present the 25th custom function in this series. While it is

• ZOHO Reports are taking longer time to get refresh

  Hi Team, Since last few days, I'm facing issues in getting updated reports. For eg: right after making an expense entry or even posting a journal, it is taking longer then expected for the updated reports. Refer below: "You are viewing the report that

• Sales IQ chat is not working in signed android apk

  I have integrated ZOHO sales IQ support chat and i have followed each step and its working fine in my development build but when i create signed APK for it. Chat does not work in it and showing awaiting for detail. I previously asked the same query but

• How to add line breaks in zoho.cliq.postToUser(...) message?

  In a CRM function using Deluge I'm sending this message and attempting to add some line breaks but they are ignored. Is there another way to add these breaks? My message: message: New urgent task\nDescription \nThis is a fake description.\n A new line?

• Problem with CRM Connection not Refreshing Token

  I've setup a connection with Zoom in the CRM. I'm using this connection to automate some registrations, so my team doesn't have to manually create them in both the CRM and Zoom. Connection works great in my function until the token expires. It does not refresh and I have to manually revoke the connection and connect it again. I've chatted with Zoho about this and after emailing me that it couldn't be done I asked for specifics on why and they responded. "The connection is CRM is not a feature to

• Create Receipt of a Donation (not a sale)

  We are a non-profit organization that receives general donations. How do I create a receipt of payment for the donor and categorize the payment as a Gift? I tried the method of creating an invoice; however that automatically created a "Sales" transaction

• Zoho Books Invoices Templates

  It would be really helpful to have more advanced features to customise the invoice templates in Zoho Books. Especially I´m thinking of the spacing of the different parts of the invoice (Address line etc.). If you have a sender and receiver address in

• In Lesson Video

  Can anyone help me with this? I'm not sure what happened. It suddenly became like that. I tried to reupload. I tried create a new lesson. Still the same. Please help!

• emailing estimates

  Shows up in the customer mail logs as sent but nobody is receiving them, even when I send them to myself I don't get them ??? Something wrong with the mail server or my end ?

• Custom TDS on Vendor Credits via API

  Hi, We are using Zoho Books APIs for posting Bills and vendor credits. We are unable to post custom TDS amount posting vendor credits. Can you please share the API spec and Payload that need to be sent for Custom TDS for Vendor Credits.

• How to use OR when filtering using two fields

  I want to create return a list of Account Names by filtering on Field1 = "yes" OR Field 2 = "no" I can't see how to use the OR in the filter.

• Editing the list of Categories in the Categorize Manually section of Banking in Zoho Books

  Hi, I need to create two new Categories called Withdrawals and Deposits to categorize payments in a bank account. How do I edit the Categories list?

• Mobile phone version not working well

  I am working on the Zoho Site Builder. In the preview the desktop version looks okay, but in the mobile phone preview many words are cut off in the weirdest (wrong) way. How can I fix that?

• Next Page