Customers for any store either offline or online (that is, e-commerce) all exhibit different behaviors in terms of buying patterns. Some might buy in bulk, while others might buy lesser quantities of stuff but the transactions might be spread out throughout the year. Some might buy big items during festival times like Christmas and so on. Figuring out the buying patterns of the customers and grouping or segmenting the customers based on their buying patterns is of the utmost importance for the business owners, simply because it lays out the customers' needs in front of them and their importance. They could selectively market to the more important customers, thereby giving prime care and importance to the customers that generate maximum revenue for the stores.
Figuring out the buying patterns of the customers from historical data (of their purchase transactions) is easy for an online store as all the transaction data is readily available. Some approaches that people use...