An Alternative Methodology for Mining Seasonal Pattern Using Self-Organizing Map

In retail industry, it is very important to understand seasonal sales pattern, because this knowledge can assist decision makers in managing inventory and formulating marketing strategies. Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is suitable for extracting and illustrating essential structures because SOM has unsupervised learning and topology preserving properties, and prominent visualization techniques. In this experiment, we propose a method for seasonal pattern analysis using Self-Organizing Map. Performance test with real-world data from stationery stores in Indonesia shows that the method is effective for seasonal pattern analysis. The results are used to formulate several marketing and inventory management strategies.