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

• Can we do Image swatches for color variants?

  We want to do something like the attached screenshot on our new zoho store. We need image swatches instead of normal text selection. We want to user to select an image as color option. Is this doable? I don't see any option on zoho backend. Please h

• Export your notes from Notebook!

  Dear users, The long awaited feature is now live. Yes, you can now export your notes from Notebook app in bulk. But the feature has just started with web app alone for now. You can try the export feature as mentioned below: Go to our web app, https://notebook.zoho.com Go to 'Settings' > 'Export' Now, select the format: You can select either ZNote or HTML Once done, you can use the same to import or can have this a local backup of your notes. Note: Export for other platforms are in development and

• Prepopulating Fields

  Hello, I have a form (Assets) with 2 lookup fields: Client (from Clients) Site (from Client Sites) I modified the code (highlighted in red below), so the Site dropdown shows the list of sites related to the Client. must have Client_Site ( type = picklist

• REPORT THAT SHOWS SOH FOR ITEMS THAT HAVE ZERO SALES

  When we started Zoho we imported a lot of inventory lines directly off our suppliers price list and have never ordered / sold. I want to clean up our data base and remove all these lines. What reeport will show me what lines have zero sales as well as

• Automation series : Close all tasks once the project is completed

  When a project is marked as Completed, it might still have open tasks such as recurring tasks that were not marked as complete, tasks that are no longer relevant, or tasks that no longer need attention after closure. To ensure the project reflects its

• Converting Sales Order to Purchase Order

  Hi All, Firstly, this code works to convert a sales order(SO) to a purchase order (PO) via a button, however I am running into an issue when I convert the SO where the values from the line items are not pulled across from the SO to the PO. The ones in

• Horrible Connectivity!

  I have used Meetings several times, but most of the time the connection is horrible. The video freezes, the audio freezes, and we end up cancelling the meeting. I am on a high speed internet connection, and Zoom works fine, so I know it's not a problem

• Is it really true that I can't set the default 'deposit to' account in 2025?

  I've been using Books for 7 years and the default account has never been a problem. I usually manually reconcile invoices and have never had a thought about which account. It has always been my account. However, I recently noticed that for the past 4

• Zoho DataPrep switching Date Format

  When using a pipeline that is importing Zoho Analytics data into Zoho DataPrep, the month and day of date fields are switched for some columns. For example, a Zoho Analytics record of "Nov. 8, 2025" will appear in Zoho DataPrep as "2025/08/11" in "yyyy/MM/dd"

• Using Another Field Value for Workflow Field Update

  I'm trying to setup a Workflow with a "Field Update" action on the Lead module, but I would like the new value to actually be taken from a DIFFERENT Field's on the Lead record (vs just defining some static value..) Is this possible? Could I simply use

• Tax information

  Hello, I need help/guidance on how to add my organization's Tax/VAT information. Thank you Pavly

• Build smarter Guided Conversations with Fork Blocks

  When your customers arrive on your support channel, they're not there to explore. They are usually confused and stuck while trying to fix something important. We understand how stressful that moment can feel and we want your bot to make things easier,

• Custom item field won't allow decimal.

  Hello, I have a custom item field that needs to be able to have a value with a decimal place such as 6.7 or 6.18. I have tried custom formatting the input format but can not get the correct syntax to allow this. Is this possible in Zoho?

• Free webinar: Zoho Sign unwrapped – 2025 in review

  Hey there! 2025 is coming to an end, and this year has been all about AI. Join our exclusive year-end webinar, where we'll walk you through the features that went live in 2025, provide answers to your questions, and give you a sneak peek on what to expect

• HubSpot CRM to Zoho Creator Integration

  I'm trying to create an integration between HubSpot CRM and Zoho Creator with HubSpot being the push source (if a contact is created or updated in HubSpot, it pushes the information to Zoho Creator). I have two questions: 1- Is it best to use Zoho Flow

• Gain control over record sharing with portal users through our new enhancement: criteria-based data exposure

  Dear Customers, We hope you're well! Portals is a self-service avenue through which your clients can access and manage their direct and related data in Zoho CRM. This empowers them to be more independent and enables them to experience a sense of transparency

• Best-practice setup in Zoho One for managing combined candidate pools and exporting anonymised CVs

  We are new users of the Zoho One bundle and operate a consulting and engineering company. Our workforce model includes a mix of permanent employees, active job applicants, and freelance/independent consultants. All three groups need to be searchable,

• Meet Canvas' Grid component: Your easiest way to build responsive record templates

  Visual design can be exciting—until you're knee-deep in the details. Whether it's aligning text boxes to prevent overlaps, fixing negative space, or simply making sure the right data stands out, just ironing out inconsistencies takes a lot of moving parts.

• hard-bounced email list

  Hi, Below pops up when I try to send an Email to some of my customer. Please guide me how to take it out from hard-bounced list? I am not sure how they were marked in hard-bounced list

• Register the 'Contact Role' addition and change as a Potential edition so it can trigger Workflows

  We are trying to use "Contact Roles" in Potentials. Contact Roles are special and different than the other Related lists, so, it may have a special behavior. Something to keep in mind is that you will never have 100 Contact Roles as you can have 100 Tasks, Calls, or any other Related list. In our case we will have 2 in average and up to 4 or 5 maximum. The problem is that we need to bring information from 3 key Contact Roles to the Potential and adding a Contact to the Contacts Roles area never trigger

• Can I change the format of the buttons in the email templates?

  Hi all! We have been working hard trying to brand our email templates, and have some way to go yet. One of the things we can't seem to edit is the green ${Cases.CUSTOMER_PORTAL_BUTTON} button and the font of the View Ticket text. Is there any way of doing

• Best practice to structure reporting to include events covering multiple months / quarters.

  Hi, I'm new to Zoho, have some experience of more "enterprise" tools, looking for some input from the community. I'm looking to create a report that includes events that cover a long period, each event has a start / end date and I'm struggling undertanding

• Marketing Tip #11: Turn features into benefits that sell

  We all love talking about our products, but here’s a secret: customers don’t just buy features, they buy benefits. Instead of just saying "Made from 100% organic cotton," try "Soft, breathable comfort that lasts all day." Benefits tell shoppers how your

• Synchronise item image between Zoho Commerce and Zoho Books/Inventory/CRM

  Here is a blindingly simple idea to tie several Zoho products together. Zoho - please include a method to synchronise the item image (or images) from one Zoho application to another. For example, if you upload an item image in Zoho Inventory, a user should

• How do I migrate from zoho mail to Office 365?

  The manual migration of Zoho Mail to Microsoft 365 typically requires using IMAP to move emails and configuring Microsoft Outlook to sync Zoho Mail. This approach can be error-prone, especially if there are multiple accounts or large email archives. Moreover,

• New Update: Convert External Users in Bulk in Zoho Directory

  Greetings to all Zoho Directory users out there! We’re excited to introduce a new update that makes user management in Zoho Directory even more efficient; you can now convert external users in bulk! Earlier, admins could convert only one external user

• New Update: Convert External Users in Bulk in Zoho One

  Greetings to all Zoho One users out there! We’re excited to introduce a new update that makes user management in Zoho One even more efficient; you can now convert external users in bulk! Earlier, admins could convert only one external user at a time.

• How to edit form layout for extension

  I am working on extension development. I have created all the fields. I want to rearrange the layout in Sigma platform. But there is no layout module in Sigma. How can I achieve this for extensions other than Zet CLI and putting the fields into widget

• Website not properly connecting with Zoho Creator app portal (embed & data sync issue)

  Hello Zoho Community, I’m currently facing an issue while trying to connect my external website with a Zoho Creator app portal. I have a tool-based website ( https://mygardencalculator.com/ ) where users interact with calculators and dynamic content.

• 日本語フォントの選択肢拡充についての要望

  日本語フォントの選択肢がとても少ないと感じたことはありませんか？ 多くのアプリ（たとえば Invoice）ではフォントが1種類しかなく、正直あまり使いやすい・見た目が良いとも言えません。 そろそろ、もっと多くの日本語フォントを追加してほしい、そしてすべてのアプリで同じフォント選択肢を使えるようにしてほしいと、私たちユーザーが声を上げる時期だと思います。 ご存じのとおり、現状ではアプリごとにフォント周りの仕様にほとんど一貫性がありません。 みなさん、一緒に要望を出していきましょう！

• Does anyone know how to setup Zoho Desk or Zoho CRM as a custom outgoing/incoming Call Centre?

  I need to setup a call center so I can setup agents to make phone calls across Canada to market our services.  I am trying to figure out the most reliable and cost efficient way to do this? I am currently paying for two phone services and neither seem

• Prevent Unapproved Quotes from Exporting to Zoho CRM Finance Module

  Is it possible to prevent unapproved quotes in Zoho Books from being exported from Zoho Finance module inside Zoho CRM?

• Default font size for printing is too big

  A recent issue in printing e mails is that the default font size is huge. This happens in both Edge and Firefox. In order to get what I would call a "normal" printout of an e mail it is necessary to go into the printer preferences / options and set the scale to 75%, otherwise a short e mail with signature and logos etc printed at 100% can take 3 or 4 pages. The annoying thing is that it is necessary to do this each time a printout is to be made as a change in scale only applies to that particular

• Request for Auto PO - Min–Max based Automated Purchase Feature

  Dear Zoho POS Team, I’m writing to request a feature enhancement that would significantly streamline inventory management for businesses using Zoho POS — particularly supermarkets, FMCG retail, and multi-store operations like ours. Feature Requested:

• Export Invoices to XML file

  Namaste! ZOHO suite of Apps is awesome and we as Partner, would like to use and implement the app´s from the Financial suite like ZOHO Invoice, but, in Portugal, we can only use certified Invoice Software and for this reason, we need to develop/customize on top of ZOHO Invoice to create an XML file with specific information and after this, go to the government and certified the software. As soon as we have for example, ZOHO CRM integrated with ZOHO Invoice up and running, our business opportunities

• issue with deluge script

  i used chat gpt to build this script and I am getting 2 errors which I cannot figure out how to fix: void monthly_sales_order_generation() { try { // ---------------- CONFIG ------------------- analytics_url_1 = "https://analytics.zoho.com/api/<workspaceID>/report/<reportID1>/data";

• Introducing LinkedIn Apply Connect for Zoho Recruit

  Attract up to 3x more qualified candidates and hire more efficiently with LinkedIn Apply Connect. Let candidates fill-in job applications without any redirections, gain deeper insights with applicant highlights within Zoho Recruit, and keep candidates

• Recruit paid support?

  Hi all, Could anyone who has paid support package advise if it provides value for money with regards to support response times? Exploring the idea as unfortunately when we have faced issues with Recruit it has been a 7+ day timescale from reporting to

• Ticket Status email

  Good day, This was discussed in the past, but it would be helpful if we could have the system assign a custom response to a status. We have various statuses for tickets, e.g. "closed due to no response", or "Pending Status", it would be helpful for the

• Future Orders - Due Date

  Hi In my role, I can receive tickets where the work required is requested months in advance. Using a Future Orders option, which I believe was setup under the On Hold status type, hides the Due Date, in all views/ticket etc. Whilst I understand the reasoning

• Next Page