{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7162809192","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2026.3697984","title":"BIRCH-AE: A Hierarchical Ensemble Framework for Scalable E-Commerce User Segmentation With Autoencoder-Enhanced Feature Learning","display_name":"BIRCH-AE: A Hierarchical Ensemble Framework for Scalable E-Commerce User Segmentation With Autoencoder-Enhanced Feature Learning","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-01-01","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7162809192","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2026.3697984"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1109/access.2026.3697984","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2026.3697984","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S2485537415","display_name":"IEEE Access","issn_l":"2169-3536","issn":["2169-3536"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":true,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310319808","host_organization_name":"Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310319808"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers"],"type":"journal"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"IEEE Access","raw_type":"journal-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["crossref","doaj"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2026.3697984","any_repository_has_fulltext":false},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Caiwen Li","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8341-965X"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130343225","display_name":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","ror":"https://ror.org/02e91jd64","country_code":"MY","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210152628","display_name":"Heilongjiang Vocational College of Art","ror":"https://ror.org/05e189971","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4210152628"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210161462","display_name":"Heilongjiang Institute of Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05x0m9n95","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4210161462"]}],"countries":["CN","MY"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Caiwen Li","raw_affiliation_strings":["College of Art and Design, Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, Daowai, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China","Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8341-965X","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"College of Art and Design, Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, Daowai, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210161462","https://openalex.org/I4210152628"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Iskandar Ishak","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8874-1417"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130343225","display_name":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","ror":"https://ror.org/02e91jd64","country_code":"MY","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}],"countries":["MY"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Iskandar Ishak","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8874-1417","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Hamidah Ibrahim","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9900-0531"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130343225","display_name":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","ror":"https://ror.org/02e91jd64","country_code":"MY","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}],"countries":["MY"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hamidah Ibrahim","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9900-0531","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Maslina Zolkepli","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130343225","display_name":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","ror":"https://ror.org/02e91jd64","country_code":"MY","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}],"countries":["MY"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Maslina Zolkepli","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Fatimah Sidi","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9556-9045"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130343225","display_name":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","ror":"https://ror.org/02e91jd64","country_code":"MY","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}],"countries":["MY"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Fatimah Sidi","raw_affiliation_strings":["Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9556-9045","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Caili Li","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3516-9741"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I130343225","display_name":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","ror":"https://ror.org/02e91jd64","country_code":"MY","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210152628","display_name":"Heilongjiang Vocational College of Art","ror":"https://ror.org/05e189971","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4210152628"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210161462","display_name":"Heilongjiang Institute of Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05x0m9n95","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I4210161462"]}],"countries":["CN","MY"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Caili Li","raw_affiliation_strings":["College of Art and Design, Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, Daowai, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China","Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3516-9741","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"College of Art and Design, Heilongjiang Institute of Technology, Daowai, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210161462","https://openalex.org/I4210152628"]},{"raw_affiliation_string":"Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I130343225"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":2,"institutions_distinct_count":3,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":{"value":1850,"currency":"USD","value_usd":1850},"apc_paid":{"value":1850,"currency":"USD","value_usd":1850},"fwci":0.0,"has_fulltext":false,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.70967856,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":"14","issue":null,"first_page":"88580","last_page":"88609"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10203","display_name":"Recommender Systems and Techniques","score":0.5753999948501587,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1710","display_name":"Information Systems"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10203","display_name":"Recommender Systems and Techniques","score":0.5753999948501587,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1710","display_name":"Information Systems"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12384","display_name":"Customer churn and segmentation","score":0.06340000033378601,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1406","display_name":"Marketing"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/14","display_name":"Business, Management and Accounting"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T11550","display_name":"Text and Document Classification Technologies","score":0.029600000008940697,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/scalability","display_name":"Scalability","score":0.5439000129699707},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/segmentation","display_name":"Segmentation","score":0.5145999789237976},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/feature","display_name":"Feature (linguistics)","score":0.4925999939441681},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/ensemble-learning","display_name":"Ensemble learning","score":0.46459999680519104},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/pattern-recognition","display_name":"Pattern recognition (psychology)","score":0.4343999922275543},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/scale-space-segmentation","display_name":"Scale-space segmentation","score":0.3885999917984009}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.85589998960495},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.6263999938964844},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C48044578","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q727490","display_name":"Scalability","level":2,"score":0.5439000129699707},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C89600930","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1423946","display_name":"Segmentation","level":2,"score":0.5145999789237976},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2776401178","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12050496","display_name":"Feature (linguistics)","level":2,"score":0.4925999939441681},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C45942800","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q245652","display_name":"Ensemble learning","level":2,"score":0.46459999680519104},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C153180895","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7148389","display_name":"Pattern recognition (psychology)","level":2,"score":0.4343999922275543},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C65885262","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7429708","display_name":"Scale-space segmentation","level":4,"score":0.3885999917984009},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2778755073","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10858537","display_name":"Scale (ratio)","level":2,"score":0.3765000104904175},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C119857082","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2539","display_name":"Machine learning","level":1,"score":0.3716999888420105},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C124504099","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q56933","display_name":"Image segmentation","level":3,"score":0.35899999737739563},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C52622490","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1026626","display_name":"Feature extraction","level":2,"score":0.30090001225471497},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C124101348","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q172491","display_name":"Data mining","level":1,"score":0.2985000014305115},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C59404180","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17013334","display_name":"Feature learning","level":2,"score":0.2793000042438507},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C25694479","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7446278","display_name":"Segmentation-based object categorization","level":5,"score":0.27469998598098755},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C36464697","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q451553","display_name":"Visualization","level":2,"score":0.2502000033855438}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":2,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1109/access.2026.3697984","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2026.3697984","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S2485537415","display_name":"IEEE Access","issn_l":"2169-3536","issn":["2169-3536"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":true,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310319808","host_organization_name":"Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310319808"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers"],"type":"journal"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"IEEE Access","raw_type":"journal-article"},{"id":"pmh:oai:doaj.org/article:e8806390cdba41c7a9470e743fe0c914","is_oa":false,"landing_page_url":"https://doaj.org/article/e8806390cdba41c7a9470e743fe0c914","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306401280","display_name":"DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":false,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":null,"host_organization_name":null,"host_organization_lineage":[],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":"IEEE Access, Vol 14, Pp 88580-88609 (2026)","raw_type":"article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1109/access.2026.3697984","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2026.3697984","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S2485537415","display_name":"IEEE Access","issn_l":"2169-3536","issn":["2169-3536"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":true,"is_core":true,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310319808","host_organization_name":"Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310319808"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers"],"type":"journal"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"IEEE Access","raw_type":"journal-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[{"display_name":"Industry, innovation and infrastructure","score":0.42681220173835754,"id":"https://metadata.un.org/sdg/9"}],"awards":[],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320313655","display_name":"Foundation for Research, Science and Technology","ror":null},{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320322714","display_name":"Universiti Putra Malaysia","ror":"https://ror.org/02e91jd64"}],"has_content":{"pdf":false,"grobid_xml":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"The":[0,52,177],"rapid":[1],"expansion":[2],"of":[3,16,20,65],"e-commerce":[4,50,218],"platforms":[5],"has":[6],"intensified":[7],"demand":[8],"for":[9,48,152,216],"scalable,":[10],"high-quality":[11],"user":[12],"segmentation":[13,214],"systems":[14],"capable":[15],"efficiently":[17],"processing":[18],"millions":[19],"behavioral":[21,56],"records.":[22],"This":[23],"paper":[24],"presents":[25],"BIRCH-AE,":[26],"a":[27,184,210],"hierarchical":[28,157],"ensemble":[29,78],"clustering":[30,137,170],"framework":[31,215],"that":[32,111],"integrates":[33],"the":[34,63,90,104],"Balanced":[35],"Iterative":[36],"Reducing":[37],"and":[38,67,89,129,139,212],"Clustering":[39,87],"using":[40],"Hierarchies":[41],"(BIRCH)":[42],"algorithm":[43],"with":[44,126,132,155],"autoencoder-based":[45],"feature":[46,167],"learning":[47,168],"large-scale":[49,122],"analytics.":[51,219],"autoencoder":[53],"compresses":[54],"high-dimensional":[55],"data":[57,154,161],"into":[58],"compact":[59],"latent":[60],"representations,":[61],"mitigating":[62],"curse":[64],"dimensionality":[66],"improving":[68],"cluster":[69],"separability.":[70],"Multiple":[71],"BIRCH":[72,151],"configurations":[73],"are":[74],"combined":[75],"through":[76,199],"four":[77],"strategies:":[79],"Majority":[80],"Voting,":[81,83],"Weighted":[82],"Advanced":[84],"Affinity-based":[85],"Spectral":[86],"(AASC),":[88],"proposed":[91],"BIRCH-Optimized":[92],"Hierarchical":[93],"Consensus":[94],"(BOHC).":[95],"Dynamic":[96],"selection":[97],"based":[98],"on":[99,120],"multi-criteria":[100],"evaluation":[101],"automatically":[102],"identifies":[103],"best-performing":[105],"strategy":[106],"per":[107],"dataset":[108],"setting,":[109],"emphasizing":[110],"no":[112],"single":[113,150],"consensus":[114],"method":[115],"is":[116],"universally":[117],"optimal.":[118],"Experiments":[119],"two":[121],"datasets":[123],"(Retail":[124],"Rocket":[125],"1.4M":[127],"users":[128],"E-Commerce":[130],"Behavior":[131],"4.5M":[133],"users)":[134],"show":[135],"improved":[136],"quality":[138,171],"practical":[140,211],"scalability.":[141],"BOHC":[142,185],"achieves":[143],"up":[144],"to":[145],"23%":[146],"silhouette":[147],"improvement":[148],"over":[149,174],"transaction-focused":[153],"clearer":[156],"structure,":[158],"while":[159,193],"multi-domain":[160],"favor":[162],"strong":[163],"base":[164],"models.":[165],"Autoencoder":[166],"improves":[169],"by":[172],"23\u201353%":[173],"raw":[175],"features.":[176],"full":[178],"4.5M-user":[179],"experiment":[180],"was":[181],"executed":[182],"as":[183,209],"scalability":[186],"run,":[187],"completed":[188],"in":[189],"approximately":[190],"5":[191],"minutes,":[192],"framework-level":[194],"comparative":[195],"analyses":[196],"were":[197],"conducted":[198],"repeated":[200],"stratified":[201],"30%":[202],"subset":[203],"trials.":[204],"These":[205],"findings":[206],"support":[207],"BIRCH-AE":[208],"adaptive":[213],"enterprise-scale":[217]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-06-18T08:10:14.011955","created_date":"2026-02-02T00:00:00"}