Geo-Referenced Customer Segmentation Using K-Means and SOM for Spatially Informed Marketing Decisions
Journal of Digital Business and International Marketing
Received On : 10 January 2026
Revised On : 16 February 2026
Accepted On : 26 February 2026
Published On : 05 April 2026
Volume 02, Issue 02, 2026
Pages : 105-114
Abstract
This research presents a customer segmentation model as a geo-referenced geo-latitude and longitude-based framework, which combines transactional behavior with latitude longitude coordinates through the k-means approximation and Self-Organizing Maps (SOM). Our pipeline methodology includes a data preprocessing phase, elbow-based cluster exploration, SOM configuration and visualization in the multilayer of the information to support spatially aware marketing decision making. The results suggest that k-means clustering models based on elbow-optimization procedure produce limited segregation, which does not provide evident geographical or behavioral delimitation of the customer population. On the other hand, a 4 by 4 hexagonal SOM trained with a Gaussian neighborhood function and evaluated with topological error values produces 16 topology preserving clusters that distinguish finished goods, spare part and repair customers on both homogeneous and non-homogeneous regions.
Keywords
Self‑Organizing Map, K‑Means Clustering, Geo‑Referenced Data, Customer Segmentation, Spatial Marketing Analytics, U‑Matrix Visualization, Quantization Error, Topological Error.
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CRediT Author Statement
The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows:
Conceptualization: Walid Assaf and Zhu Ying; Methodology: Walid Assaf and Zhu Ying; Writing- Original Draft Preparation: Walid Assaf; Visualization: Zhu Ying; Investigation: Walid Assaf and Zhu Ying; Supervision: Walid Assaf and Zhu Ying; Validation: Walid Assaf and Zhu Ying; Writing- Reviewing and Editing: Walid Assaf and Zhu Ying. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Author(s) thanks to Dr. Walid Assaf for this research completion and support.
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Cite this Article
Walid Assaf and Zhu Ying, “Geo-Referenced Customer Segmentation Using K-Means and SOM for Spatially Informed Marketing Decisions”, Journal of Digital Business and International Marketing, vol.2, no.2, pp. 105-114, April 2026, doi: 10.64026/JDBIM/2026011.