Understand Customer Purchase Behavior and Boost Sales with Market Basket Analysis

Understand Customer Purchase Behavior and Boost Sales with Market Basket Analysis

Delivering a personalized purchase experience is the key differentiator for businesses to increase sales and brand loyalty. Market basket analysis, also called affinity or association analysis, is a data mining technique that helps discover significant patterns and relationships exhibited by individuals while making a purchase. 

By identifying the items that occur together,

  • Businesses can provide personalized product recommendations to customers during purchase.
  • Retailers can optimize product placements by placing or displaying related items closely and
         having adequate stock levels.
  • Marketers can curate focused campaigns and product bundle deals that resonate with customer preferences.
  • Data Requirements

    To conduct a market basket analysis, you'll need a transactional dataset that includes the item name, bill number (or order ID), quantity, and date and time of the transaction.

    We are using a sample e-commerce store data saved as Orders for illustration. Each row in the Orders data table denotes a transaction.

    Preparing the data for analysis

    To conduct the market basket analysis, we need to extract the following data from the base table (Orders) using SQL queries.
    • A query table that contains all possible pairs of combinations that could occur together.
    • A query table to get the number of transactions for combinations that have appeared together or combinations that has been purchased.
    • As a final step, merge the all possible combinations query table and the number of transactions query table.

    Generating all Possible Pairs of Combinations

    The first step in the data preparation process is to generate all distinct pairs of items that could appear on the transaction. To get that, 
    1. Perform a self-join operation on the Items Name column of the base table, Orders. The self-join operation compares each row (transaction) with every other row (transaction).
    2. Use the condition Greater than (>) to ensure that each pair of items is considered only once and avoid duplicates where the same pair appears in reverse order, like (Lavender Candle, British Rose) or (British Rose, Lavender Candle) or (Lavender Candle, Lavender Candle) 
      SELECT
          "Orders" . "Item Name" "Item",
          "Orders copy". "Item Name" "Item Copy"
      FROM ( SELECT `orders` .`Item Name` "Item Name"
                    FROM  "Orders" 
                     GROUP BY 
      ) AS  "Orders"
      JOIN(SELECT `orders`.`Item Name` "Item Name"
      FROM  "Orders" 
      GROUP BY 
      ) AS  "Orders copy" ON "Orders" . "Item Name"  > "Orders copy" . "Item Name"

    Finally, save the query table with a suitable name. We are saving it as All Items Combinations.

    Distinct Count for Existing Combination

    The second step in the data preparation process is to get the distinct count for the pairs of items that appear together in transactions.
    1. Perform a self-join operation on the Items Name column of the base table, Bill Items. The self-join operation compares each row (transaction) with every other row (transaction).
    2. Use the count_distinct function on the Bill Number column to get the total number of times a combination has occurred together.
    3. SELECT
      "Orders" . "Item Name" "Item",
      "Orders Copy" . "Items Name" "Item Combo",
      count_distinct ("Orders Copy" . "Bill Number") "Number of Transactions"
      FROM  "Orders"
      JOIN( SELECT
      `Orders`.`Item Name` "Items name",
      `Orders`.`Bill Number` "BillNo"
      FROM  "Orders" 
      ) AS  "Orders Copy"  ON  "Orders" . "Bill Number"  = "Orders Copy".  "Bill Number"
      AND "Orders" . "Item Name"  > "Orders Copy" ." Items Name"  
      GROUP BY 1,
       
    Finally, save the query table with a suitable name. We are saving it as Count for Existing Combinations.


    Merge Tables using Left Join 

    The final step in the data preparation process is to join the All Combinations table and the Count for Existing Combinations table. Use the Left Join operation on the All Items Combination table, and use the if_null function for combinations that have not occurred or been bought together.

    SELECT
    "All Items Combination" . "Item" "Item",
    "All Items Combination" . "Item Copy" "Item Copy",
    if_null("Count for Existing Transactions" . "Number of Transactions", 0) as "Number of Transactions"
    FROM  "All Items Combination"
    LEFT JOIN "Count for Existing Transactions" ON "All Items Combination" . "Item"  = "Count for Existing Transactions""Item"
    AND "All Items Combination" . "Item Copy"  = "Count for Existing Transactions" . "Item Combo" 

    By doing this, we will have a query table showing the count of pairs of items that occur together, with 0 assigned to combinations that do not occur together.


    Data Visualization - Creating a Heat map

    1. Access the Total Transactions for all Combinations query table, click the Create icon on the side navigation panel.
    2. Choose New Chart view from the drop-down menu.
    3. Drag and drop the column as shown below
      1. X - axis:  Item
      2. Y - axis - Item Copy
      3. Color - Number of transactions

    4. Click Generate Graph.
    5. The heat map for pairs of combinations will be ready!

    Inference

    From the above graph, we infer that combinations like {Silver Antique Vase, Chocolate Box} and {Silver Antique Vase, Rainbow Umbrella} {Rainbow Umbrella, Chocolate box} {Silver Antique Vase, Porcelain Rose} have a higher purchase frequency.

    Items with a higher purchase frequency can be displayed on the home page of the e-commerce site as Best Sellers. They can also be shown as recommendations to cross-sell products if the cart has any one of the related items that is frequently bought. 

    Market Basket Analysis for 3 - item Combination

    You can create a query table similar to the above query table to find the three items that occur together in transactions and create a pivot table for visualization. Refer to the sample workspace for queries.


      Access your files securely from anywhere









                            Zoho Developer Community




                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts



                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Tip of the Week - Spot Risky Sales with Conditional Formatting

                                                              In Zoho Analytics, small tweaks can lead to big insights. One such feature is Conditional formatting based on other columns, your key to instantly spotting where sales success is overshadowed by product returns. Our tip this week shows you how to apply


                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                        Zoho Books Resources


                                                                          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                            Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                              Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                Qntrl Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                      Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner







                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                              Zoho Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                            • Recent Topics

                                                                                                            • Employee type and source translation

                                                                                                              In Zoho People, when I fill in the employee’s information, there is the option to determine the type of employment (employee type) and the hiring source. Both options ALWAYS appear in English. It is extremely inconvenient to deal with poorly translated
                                                                                                            • Sync Issue Between Zoho Notebook Web App on Firefox (PC) and Android App

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho Notebook Community, I'm facing a sync problem with Zoho Notebook. When I use the web version on Mozilla Firefox browser on my PC, I create and save new notes, and I've synced them successfully. However, these new notes aren't showing up in my
                                                                                                            • Request for Clarity on Timeline for True GPT/Zia Auto-Response Capabilities

                                                                                                              I appreciate Zoho’s steady innovation, but I’m concerned that Desk and Zia remain well behind modern AI capabilities. For years, GPT-based tools have been able to generate and send contextual responses, yet Zoho Desk only supports summarization or suggested
                                                                                                            • Notebook audio recordings disappearing

                                                                                                              I have recently been experiencing issues where some of my attached audio recordings are disappearing. I am referring specifically to ones made within a Note card in Notebook on mobile, made by pressing the "+" button and choosing "Record audio" (or similar),
                                                                                                            • Has anyone built a ticket export that allows Help Center users to export the tickets shown in the My Area list they are looking at?

                                                                                                              Hi, We are moving to Zoho Desk soon. Our current support system displays an option in our help center allowing customers to export their Open, Closed, or all tickets based on which list they are looking at. We need to offer the same in Zoho Desk help
                                                                                                            • Two factor authentication for helpdesk users

                                                                                                              The company i work for wants use the helpdesk site in Zoho desk, as a place for their distribution partners to ask question and look for information about our product. The things there is suppose to go up there is somewhat confidential between my company
                                                                                                            • Zoho Desk: Q2 2025 | What's New

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho Desk's 2025 Autumn updates. This release brings new features and enhancements that improve work management and enable businesses to provide a better overall support experience. Spanning from Zia Agents to
                                                                                                            • Committed Stock and To Be Received Stock via API?

                                                                                                              Is it possible to retrieve Committed Stock and/or To Be Received Stock for an Item via the API? I want to use this information for calculating the amount of inventory needed to be purchased.
                                                                                                            • Checkboxes not adhering to any policy in mail merge - data from CRM

                                                                                                              I want checkboxes to appear depending on whether the checkbox in the CRM module is ticked or not. However, the tickboxes that appear are either ticked or not, but don't correlate to the actual selections in the CRM module. This is is despite updating
                                                                                                            • Items Landed Cost and Profit?

                                                                                                              Hello, we recently went live with Zoho Inventory, and I have a question about the Landed Cost feature. The FAQ reads: "Tracking the landed cost helps determine the overall cost incurred in procuring the product. This, in turn, helps you to decide the
                                                                                                            • CC and/or BCC users in email templates

                                                                                                              I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submitted
                                                                                                            • Create Contract API Endpoint Unclear "inputfields" Requirements

                                                                                                              Hello, I'm trying to create a Deluge function that accepts inputs from a form in Zoho Creator and creates a barebones contract of a given type. See below for the current code, cleaned of authentication information. // Fetch form data // Hidden field client_name
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #46 - Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API (Part 1/2)

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API. What will you learn from this post? Notes in Zoho CRM Working with Notes through Notes APIs 1. Notes in Zoho CRM 1a. Why add Notes to records? Notes are a great way to summarize your observations on customer and prospect interactions and outcomes. By saving notes as CRM data, a sales rep will always be able to keep track of how a sale is progressing. To know more about notes in
                                                                                                            • Marketer's Space - Why email marketing matters in ecommerce (and how to get started with Zoho Campaigns)

                                                                                                              Hello Marketers, Welcome to this week's Marketer's space post. Today, we'll discus why email marketing matters in ecommerce businesses. Running an online store is exciting but challenging. If you're running an online store, you've probably experienced
                                                                                                            • Zoho Campaigns Event timestamps do not propagate to Zoho CRM

                                                                                                              We have integrated Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. But when looking at Contact records, the Campaign event data is missing the actual timestamps: especially when a particular email was sent. They're not in the Campaigns related list, and the cannot be found
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #121 : Customize List Views using Client Script

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss how to customize List Views using Client Script. This post will answer the questions Ability to remove public views by the super admin in the Zoho CRM and Is
                                                                                                            • Setting default From address when replying to request

                                                                                                              At the moment, if I want to reply to a request, the From field has three options, company@zohosupport.com, support@company.zohosupport.com, and support@company.com.  The first two are really internal address that should never be seen by the customer and
                                                                                                            • Tip #45 - Explore Your Support Reach with Zoho Assist’s Geo Insights - 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                              Understanding where your remote support sessions are happening can help you make smarter decisions, allocate resources effectively, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In this week's Zoho Assist's community post we will be exploring Geo Insights
                                                                                                            • Formatting of text pasted into Zoho documents

                                                                                                              Howdy, I'm a newbie and finding Zoho an improvement to MS Word. Consider yourself hugged. High on my wish list would be plain text cut-and-paste. When pasting text from the web to Zoho, presently Zoho imports the formatting along with the text. This means that every cut-and-paste operation brings in text in a different font, size, or style. Can we have at least the option of importing plain text without formatting (or better yet, is this option already out there?) ... Thanks Helen
                                                                                                            • Add additional features to Zoho Tables

                                                                                                              Zoho Tables is a really great tool, why not add features like diagramming capability into the tool from applications like Draw.io which I believe is open source, you should be able to do wireframes, process flow diagrams, network design, etc. Please note
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: August 2025

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, As summer ends, Zoho Social is gearing up for some exciting, bigger updates lined up for the months ahead. While those are in the works, we rolled out a few handy feature updates in August to keep your social media management running smoothly.
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: July 2025

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! July has brought some exciting new updates to Zoho Social. From powerful enhancements in the Social Toolkit to new capabilities in the mobile app, we’ve packed this month with features designed to help you level up your social media presence.
                                                                                                            • 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
                                                                                                            • Tagged problem !!!

                                                                                                              Damn it, we're one of dozens of construction companies in Africa, but we can't link purchasing invoices to projects. Why isn't this feature available?
                                                                                                            • Syntax for URLs in HTML Snippets

                                                                                                              What are some best practices for inserting a URL in an HTML snippet? I've looked at Zoho Help articles on navigation-based and functional-based URLs, but I'm still unclear on how to incorporate them in an HTML snippet. For example, 1. How do I link to
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: June 2025

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We’re back with June Zoho Social highlights. This month brought some exciting feature updates—especially within the Social Toolkit—to enhance your social media presence. We engaged with several MSME companies through community meet-ups
                                                                                                            • Make panel configuration interface wider

                                                                                                              Hi there, The same way you changed the custom function editor's interface wider, it would be nice to be able to edit panels in pages using the full width of the screen rather than the currently max-width: 1368px. Is there a reason for having the configuration panel not taking the full width? Its impossible at this width to edit panels that have a lot of elements. Please change it to 100% so we can better edit the layouts. Thanks! B.
                                                                                                            • Tip 7: How to fetch data from another application?

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, Following our Zoho Creator - Tips and Tricks series every fortnight, we are back today with a tip based on one of the most popular questions asked in our forum. This tip would help you fetch data from another application(App B) and use it
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: May 2025

                                                                                                              Hey everyone, We're excited to share some powerful updates for the month of May! Let's take a look! Reply to your Instagram and Facebook comments privately through direct messages Are you tired of cluttered comment threads or exposing customer queries
                                                                                                            • Sub-Form Fields as Filters for Reports

                                                                                                              Hi, I would like to use the Sub-Form Fields as Filters in Reports just like we do for Main Page Fields. Thanks Dan
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM Formula - Current Time minus Date/Time field

                                                                                                              Hello, I am trying to prevent duplicate emails going to clients when more than 1 deal is being updated. To do this, I would like to create a formula to identify if a date/time field is >= 2 hours ago. Can someone please help me write this formula? Example:
                                                                                                            • Billing Management: #7 Usage Billing in Telecom & Internet Service Provider

                                                                                                              Telecom and Internet Service Providers operate in markets where usage varies drastically from one customer to another. While flexible, usage-based models align revenue directly with consumption, they also introduce operational challenges like real-time
                                                                                                            • Zoho Sprints - Q3 updates for 2025

                                                                                                              The updates for the third quarter of 2025 are out. A few significant features and enhancements have been rolled out to improve user experience and product capabilities. The following are the updates: Manage tags and cluster tags Record and maintain project
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #208 - Answering your Questions | Functions, AI and Extensions

                                                                                                              Hello Developers! Welcome back to a fresh week of Kaizen! We are grateful for your active participation in sharing feedback and queries for our 200th milestone. This week, we will answer the queries related to Functions and Extensions in Zoho CRM. 1.
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM still doesn't let you manage timezones (yearly reminder)

                                                                                                              This is something I have asked repeatedly. I'll ask once again. Suppose that you work in France. Next month you have a trip to Guatemala. You call a contact there, close a meeting, record that meeting in CRM. On the phone, your contact said: "meet me
                                                                                                            • Creating Restaurant Inventory Management on Zoho

                                                                                                              Hi,  We run a small cloud kitchen and are interested to use Zoho for Inventory and Composite Item tracking for our food served and supplied procured to make food items.  Our model is basically like subway where the customer can choose breads, veggies,
                                                                                                            • To Zoho customers and partners: how do you use Linked Workspaces?

                                                                                                              Hello, I'm exploring how we can set up and use Linked Workspaces and would like to hear from customers and partners about your use cases and experience with them. I have a Zoho ticket open, because my workspace creation fails. In the meantime, how is
                                                                                                            • Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM : First/Last Name to just Name ?

                                                                                                              When integrating a Zoho Form into the Accounts menu of the CRM I'm having trouble with how names are formatted ; In Forms the data is available as First Name or Last Name In the CRM there is only one field called Name How can I ensure that "John" "Smith"
                                                                                                            • This festive season, offer discounts with coupon code support in Stripe Checkout

                                                                                                              Hello form builders! It’s the festive season, the perfect time to spread joy and great deals! Now, with Zoho Forms’ latest enhancement for Stripe Checkout, you can do exactly that with coupon codes! Your payment forms integrated with Stripe Checkout can
                                                                                                            • Cómo creo una factura negativa o de abono?

                                                                                                              NEcesito anular una factura y crear una nueva igual pero en negativo. El sistema no me lo permite
                                                                                                            • Next Page