An interval type 2 hesitant fuzzy MCDM approach and a fuzzy c means clustering for retailer clustering

Owing to the advancements in information and telecommunication technologies, mobile location-based services are able to use previously collected mobile check-in data. This multi-dimensional data can provide new opportunities for research problems such as establishing new platforms for location-based advertising and location-based personalized recommendations. In other words, location data of potential customers indicate personal interests and visiting preferences. In some cases, customers’ preferences could not be easily determined or predicted while considering visiting patterns of mobile users. In this respect, this study provides a novel retailer segmentation approach based on multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) combined fuzzy data clustering. The proposed model consists of two phases: (1) an interval type 2 hesitant MCDM approach for the determination of location perceived value and (2) retailer (store) clustering via different product sale prices with fuzzy data-based fuzzy c means (FcM) clustering. Proposed approach enables the simplification of FcM clustering adaptation to non-symmetric fuzzy data using dissimilarity measure. Using this integrated approach, advertisers and recommender system suppliers will be able to manage their product-special offerings to customers considering retailer segments and shopping mall characteristics. Additionally, the proposed approach constitutes the infrastructure of location-based recommender systems under imprecise environment.