Set up a database

Set up a sales database for use with the Insights: Customer segmentation feature.

In the navigation menu, click Insights (underneath Analytics). You'll see a list of your unconfigured databases.

Click the database you want to configure. This opens the Customer segmentation setup. Review the database name at the top of the page to ensure you're setting up the correct one. The options available in the setup depend on what's available in that database. Move through the five steps (tabs), as outlined below. You can return to this setup later to adjust the settings as required.

Data

1. Select the data stream that contains the sales transactions.

2. Select customer dimension and property (name).

3. Select the sales value measure. This is the value used to record each purchase, for example US dollars. A preview table appears on the right, so you can check the data (customer codes, names and sales volumes) are correct.

4. Click Next.

Segmentation

Select the segmentation grouping to apply:

• 5 groups: This is a simplified version with fewer, broader customer segments.

• 10 groups (default): This is the standard version with more granular customer segments.

Your selection is reflected in the chart on the right, so you can see what the grouping will look like.

Frequency, Monetary, and Recency

Steps three to five allow you to classify your customers based on frequency, monetary value and recency buckets. Phocas automatically calculates the thresholds in each bucket using statistical techniques. For example:

• Frequency: Very frequent customers purchase more than 15 times per year.

• Monetary value: High-value customers spend over $53,000.

• Recency: Recent customers purchased in the last 29 days.

You dont need to do anything here, but you can adjust the thresholds by editing the values in the boxes. The segmentation calculation updates automatically.

Click Next to move from the Frequency tab through to the Monetary and Recency tabs.

On the Recency tab (final step), click Save. The new Customer segmentation page opens, with a summary, chart and other elements based on the results of your database setup.