Classifying alley markets through cluster analysis using dynamic time warping and analyzing possibility of opening new stores

Abstract

This study attempts to classify 1008 alley markets in Seoul through cluster analysis using Dynamic Time Warping, one of the methods used to analyze the similarity of time series, and evaluate the possibility of opening new stores. The sequence of the gross sales of an alley market and that of gross sales per store stand for the potential of growth and profitability of the market, respectively and are used as variables for cluster analysis. Five clusters are obtained for the gross sales and four clusters for the gross sales per store. These two types of clusters are again classified as rising and falling trends, respectively, and the combination of these trends produces four categories. These categories are used to evaluate the possibility of opening new stores in alley markets. The results show that the southeast which is relatively wealthy inferior to other regions in opening new stores. Alley markets in the northeast and the southwest are better than other regions such that opening a new store is justified. In the northwest, there are many markets with trend of gross sales and that of gross sales per store moving in opposite directions, and new store openings in these markets should be postponed.