Question

You work for a retail clothing chain whose primary outlets are in shopping malls and are conducting an analysis of your customers and their preferences. You wish to find out if there are any particular activities that your customers engage in or the types of purchases made in the month before or after purchasing select items from your store. To do this, you will want to use data mining software that is capable of

A) identifying associations.
B) identifying clusters.
C) identifying sequences.
D) classification.

Answer 1

The data mining software needed for a retail clothing chain to analyze customer activities or purchases before or after buying select items should be capable of identifying sequences. This analysis can predict future buying patterns based on past behavior, aiding in marketing and inventory decisions.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine if there are any particular activities that your customers engage in or the types of purchases made before or after buying select items from your retail clothing chain, you would want a data mining software that is capable of identifying sequences.

This type of analysis is useful for understanding the order of events and can help retailers predict future buying patterns and preferences based on past behavior. Sequence analysis goes beyond seeing what items are frequently bought together (association) or what groups of customers have similar buying habits (cluster), as it helps to determine a timeline of purchases.

For instance, if a customer buys swimwear from your store, data mining might reveal that the same customer often purchases sunblock or beach accessories shortly thereafter. By identifying such sequences, the retailer can make strategic decisions about marketing and inventory management.