# What is RFM analysis?

RFM segments customers on three axes: how recently they bought, how often they buy, and how much they spend. It is old, simple, and consistently outperforms more elaborate methods for small businesses, because all three inputs come from your transaction records.

Source: https://fidella.app/glossary/rfm
Last reviewed: 2026-08-30

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The most useful piece of customer analysis a small business can do without
buying anything.

## The three axes

Recency: how long since their last visit. Frequency: how often they come.
Monetary: how much they spend. Score each into bands and the segments fall out.

## The segment that matters most

High frequency, high monetary, poor recency. These are your best customers, and
they have stopped coming. That group is both the most valuable and the most
recoverable, and almost nobody looks for it.

## Why it beats fancier methods

Every input is already in your records. There is nothing to instrument and
nothing to model, so it is available today rather than after a project.