Introduction:

The retail sector has long been one of the most competitive and fast-paced in the economy,
with businesses making concerted efforts to innovate and provide superior service to their
customers. As a result, retail has become one of the most exciting and cutthroat markets to
work in today. A country that exemplifies this phenomenon is the United States of America.
Due to the rise of e-commerce and the importance of data analytics in modern decision-
making, the industry has been shaken up considerably in recent years. Both of these changes
have occurred in the last few years. Because of these two factors, data analytics' role in the
decision-making process has grown in importance. Traditional retailers, sometimes referred
to as "brick-and-mortar stores," have a greater difficulty in today's market when they must
also oversee virtual stores and marketplaces.

One such retailer has stores in several nations and offers a wide selection of products,
including electronics, clothing, food, and home decor. You may buy these items wherever
you like, even online. All of the company's retail outlets carry and sell these products. The
retail industry is very competitive, and this corporation must make educated decisions in
order to stay ahead of its rivals in each country where it operates.

Current sales estimates, as well as decisions about inventory management, price strategies,
and promotional activities, are all informed by historical sales data. This helps the business
achieve its profit goals while limiting potential losses. This allows the company to make
more accurate estimates of future income. Furthermore, they collect information on what
customers do to improve the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. However, this
approach is insufficient in the fast-paced environment of modern retail.

The company has been urged to conduct an audit of its primary data streams and sources,
establish a foundation for data analytics, expand upon the data that is already available, and
ensure compliance with data protection and ethical assurance regulations. The proposed
solutions are as follows. A favourable consequence would be an enhancement of the
company's decision-making process as a result of this.

The decision-making process in its entirety is incorporated into the proposed framework,
from the analysis of currently observable data to the analysis of additional types of data that
may be gathered, saved, and processed with the intention of supplementing the information
that is already available in order to improve the decision-making process. This study
considers both the now observable data and any other types of data that may be acquired,
stored, and analysed in the future. The organisation can use this framework to learn more
about customers' feelings, preferences, and actions, as well as to improve its ability to
forecast product demand and inventory management by responding swiftly to fluctuations in
supply and demand.

The architecture for data analytics must incorporate procedures for cleansing, standardising,
and verifying the data to ensure its high quality. The framework must account for these
procedures. As part of the normalisation process, the data should be converted to a format
that is generally used for the purpose of conducting analysis. This will guarantee that the
statistics are shown in the most accurate light. This step is essential to the process and must
be included. For the validation to be complete, the data must first pass through a method that
checks for consistency, correctness, and completeness. This step is essential before
proceeding with the rest of the procedure.

In addition, the company must use a plethora of other types of data, including information
gathered from social media platforms, data regarding website traffic, data regarding the
weather, and data regarding the company's rivals. The corporation might use this extra data to
better respond to customers' wants and requirements by adjusting its stock, prices, and
marketing campaigns.

If it wants to keep its reputation for ethics and its customers' personal data safe, it must
adhere to all current data protection and privacy requirements. Only then will they be able to
protect client privacy without compromising on their commitment to ethics. It is the
company's responsibility to ensure that personal information is collected, processed, and kept
in a safe and lawful manner, that it is used only for the intended purpose, and that it is not
disclosed to or sold to any outside parties without the user's consent. All of these duties come
within the larger obligation of the corporation to ensure the lawfulness of data collection,
processing, and storage. All of these duties fall under the umbrella duty of the organisation
ensuring the morality of data collection, processing, and storage at every stage. This duty is
embedded within the wider field of study known as "data ethics."

Retailers may be found catering to a dizzying array of specialisations, selling everything from
apparel to gadgets and beyond. The products sold by these businesses span the entire gamut,
from clothing to gadgets to everything in between. These kinds of specialised markets exist
within the larger retail industry. The retail sector is quite extensive, encompassing several
specialist fields. Statista predicts that by 2023, the retail industry throughout the world would
be worth a total of $31.88 trillion. The data used for this projection was generously provided
by Statista. Given the rise of e-commerce and the increasing value of data analytics in
informing business decisions, it is crucial for retailers to preserve their competitive edge.

In conclusion, the supplied data analytics platform has the potential to significantly improve
the decision-making process inside the selected retail organisation. The offered structure
allows for the completion of this task. It is possible to achieve this goal by employing the
framework that has been outlined here. Customers' habits, product demand, inventory needs,
and price policies might all be better understood with this data at hand. However, the
integrity of the data, the security of the data, and the continued adherence to ethical principles
can only be ensured if the company abides by all applicable laws.

Part 2:
Examining both financial and non-financial data, this research hopes to shed light on how an
organisation arrives at its strategic decisions. To better understand the process is central to
this study's objectives. Sales and inventory levels are examples of financial data, whereas
customer information, marketing strategies, and competitive analysis are examples of non-
financial data. Information on financial statements is also part of the financial data. Both
types of information are included in the financial records. The article draws attention to a
critical issue that has to be resolved for the company's commercial activities to continue, and
it suggests a strategy for doing data analysis by making use of Python to provide an answer to
the topic.

With this research, we hope to answer the question, "Which product categories and sub-
categories are the most profitable for the organisation, and how can the organisation increase
sales in these categories while simultaneously minimising costs?" This is a critical question
for any business, and the answers to these questions will be crucial to the success of any
enterprise. This is a crucial concern because, as previously said, the company can put its
efforts and resources to better use by focusing on the most profitable product categories and
sub-categories. Moreover, cutting costs associated with things that offer a lower return on
investment may further improve the company's profitability.

The following are some of the strategic issues that businesses must address in order to
preserve their profitability and competitiveness in their particular markets:
1. What are the most popular products or categories that customers buy, and how can we
increase the visibility or promotion of these products to boost sales?
2. Which cities or regions have the highest sales, and how can we expand our reach into
these areas or target similar regions to increase sales overall?
3. How does the choice of ship mode (e.g., standard, express) impact customer
satisfaction and repeat purchases, and how can we optimize our shipping processes to
improve sales?
4. Are there specific customer segments that are particularly lucrative, and how can we
tailor our marketing and sales strategies to target these groups more effectively?
5. What will be the predicted sales for the coming year?

Using the Dataset to Conduct Strategic Question Analysis:

We will analyse the sales data from the provided dataset to answer one of the previously
mentioned critical business questions: "What are the most profitable product categories and
sub-categories for the organisation, and how can the organisation increase sales in these
categories while minimising costs?" We'll conduct this to find out "What are the most
profitable product categories and sub-categories for the organisation?" This analysis will
make use of the dataset's columns, such as Category and Sub-Category, as well as Sales. In
addition, we may investigate additional factors such as client subgroups, geographic
locations, and pricing strategies to identify opportunities to grow our customer base and
profitability.

Approach:

Our dataset will include fields like "Category," "Sub-Category," and "Sales," all of which will
be put to use in an effort to provide insight into this business challenge. In order to make
more informed business decisions, we will be analysing sales data to determine which
product groups and niches generate the most revenue. Furthermore, we will investigate
factors like customer demographics, customer geographies, and pricing strategies to find
openings for increasing our company's revenue and profit margins.

Python will be our go-to language for doing analyses on this data collection. Python is a
popular data analysis language because it provides a wealth of libraries and tools that can be
used for both the analysis of data and the presentation of the findings of the study. To do
analysis and visualisation of data, we will use tools like Pandas and Matplotlib. We will use
the following procedures to solve the issue that has occurred in the company:
Cleaning the Data: We will clean the data by eliminating any duplicates or missing
information to make sure it is accurate. Because of this, we can check if the information is
reliable.

Data Exploration: At this point, we will examine the dataset in order to learn more about it
and spot any underlying patterns or trends.

We'll be conducting an analysis of the data to determine the most profitable product groups
and subgroups so that we can focus our efforts there. To find ways to boost revenue and
profit, we'll also study factors like consumer demographics, geographic location, and pricing
policies. Growing our share of the market or boosting our profit margins are two examples.

Data visualisation: We'll create visualisations to clearly present and discuss the findings of
our investigation. We'll be able to share our results with more people this way.

Part 3:
The sales forecasting dataset offered on Kaggle is a huge database that contains essential
company information. This collection of historical sales data from a wide range of retail
outlets contains information on the number of customers, the types of goods that were
available for purchase, and the pricing of those goods. The information gathered is comprised
of the annualised total sales that were generated over a three-year span (2013-2015) by 45
unique retail outlets that were dispersed throughout various areas of the United States.

The information was given by a retail giant in the United States that has sites in a number of
different states. The company's sales and marketing department collated the data and
submitted it to Kaggle so that anybody could use it. The data is now available to everyone.
The goal of the dataset is to support enhanced corporate decision-making and the
optimisation of sales strategy. This will be accomplished via the use of sales forecasting and
further research. In an attempt to improve decision-making and maximise the effectiveness of
the sales plan, this was done.

It is extremely representative of the retail environment throughout the nation since 45

different firms from different parts of the United States contributed to the data collection.
This assures that it is accurate. This leads one to believe that the dataset offers a complete
analysis of the retail sales trends that existed in the United States throughout the time period
that was taken into consideration. Because it contains information on customer counts,
product categories, and sales prices, the dataset is an excellent resource for sales forecasting
and other research that is related to the topic.

On the other hand, the use of this dataset may be limited in some fashion; this is a possibility
that cannot be ruled out. First, the data collection only contains the most recent three years,
which may not be enough to accurately depict more recent shifts in the retail business.
Second, given the dataset only includes sales information from a single retail chain, it is
possible that the results cannot be generalised to the whole retail business in the United
States. It is also very important to keep in mind that the dataset does not consider any external
variables, such as the state of the economy, the degree of competition, or the conduct of
customers and consumers.

Even though the sales forecasting dataset on Kaggle has a few restrictions, it is still a useful
resource for businesses that are looking to enhance their ability to forecast sales and optimise
their approach to the market. Based on the data, businesses have the opportunity to improve
their knowledge of customer behaviour, acquire deeper insight into patterns in retail sales,
and make choices that have a higher probability of being successful. However, it is absolutely
necessary to keep in mind that the dataset might have some restrictions, and that it should be
used in conjunction with other data sources in order to obtain a more comprehensive picture
of the retail industry.

Part 4:
1. Data preparation, cleaning and filtering
The quality of the findings can only be guaranteed by performing essential phases in
the data analysis process such as data preparation, data cleaning, and data filtering.
There are a variety of approaches that may be used to clean, prepare, and filter the
data that is included inside the Kaggle sales forecasting dataset.

Data Preparation:
Verifying that the data are accurate and comprehensive is the first stage in the process
of getting them ready for use. This entails looking for instances of data that are
missing, figures that are unusual, and any other irregularities. Due to the fact that the
data are unambiguous and comprehensive, it is not necessary to carry out any further
work in the area of data preparation for the sales forecasting dataset.
Data Cleaning:
Before any additional processing can take place, the data must first be cleaned of any
errors, duplicates, and inconsistencies that may have occurred. Statistics such as the
mean, median, and mode may be used to make up for gaps in information caused by
outliers or missing data. For this dataset there are missing values in the Postal Code
column, the value missing is observed to be for city of Burlington, Vermont, US
which have a postal code of 5401 hence we will be replacing the null values with
5401.

Data Filtering:
Data filtering is the process of selecting the analysis's most pertinent information.
Depending on the circumstances, this might involve selecting specific rows, columns,
or values. Data on sales projections can be filtered by selecting specific stores,
regions, or time periods to examine. For example, I have chosen City wise Sales,
Weekly Sales analysis, to gain a more detailed understanding of sales trends in that
area.

2. Observations of business performance using descriptive data analysis

In order to better comprehend underlying patterns and tendencies, descriptive data
analysis summarises and presents data. From the descriptive data analysis of the sales
forecasting dataset on Kaggle, one can quickly derive several conclusions about
business performance.

As per the output of the above table, the only important observation is regarding the
sales of the company discussed as follows:
 There were 9,800 sales transactions, which corresponds to a sales volume of
9,800.
 With a mean of $230.76, it is fair to infer that the majority of transactions
occurred around this price.
 The standard deviation of 626.65 indicates that the sales quantities were highly
dispersed around the mean, with some transactions substantially larger and
others considerably smaller.
 As indicated by the minimal sales quantity of $0.44, there were likely a
number of transactions with exceedingly small sales volumes.
 The highest sales figure of $22,638 suggests that there were some extremely
expensive purchases.

3. Inferential statistics
 The plots allow us to see that the total number of sales has been growing at a
consistent rate since 2016, but the mean value of those sales, which varies
from year to year but follows a downward trend, gives us an indication that the
client base is expanding, but the average order value is becoming smaller.
 March, September, November, and December are the months in which the
total sales seem to be particularly strong. However, the average sales value is
higher during the months of January through March and August, which
suggests that the number of orders placed during these months is low but the
orders themselves are of a high value.
 In addition, the sum total sales as well as the mean sales tend to be larger in
the middle of the month compared to the rest of the month.
 The city of New York brings in the greatest sales for the Company, followed
by the city of Los Angeles.
 Sixty percent of the total sales come from only five of the top 20 cities, while
the other forty percent comes from the other cities.
 Tuesday is the day when the majority of orders are placed, making it the day
with the second-highest contribution to income.
 Thursday is the day of the week that brings in the fewest customers for the
corporation.

Research Questions

1. What are the most popular products or categories that customers buy, and how can we
increase the visibility or promotion of these products to boost sales?
 Each of the three groups brings in almost the same amount of money.
 If one were to see based on the count of the orders that have been made, they
would see that the order quantity for office supplies is the largest, although the
order quantity for technology and furniture is almost equivalent. It should be
noted that the average order value for office supplies is much lower than that
of furniture and technology.
 When looking at sales broken down by category, the phones, chairs, and
storage come out on top in terms of revenue.
2. Which cities or regions have the highest sales, and how can we expand our reach into
these areas or target similar regions to increase sales overall?

\
 The vast majority of the orders consist of standard delivery.
 More than seven consumers make a repeat purchase when the standard
delivery option is selected, however the same-day delivery shipping option is
selected by no more than customers who are repeat purchasers.
3. How does the choice of region impact mode of delivery and repeat purchases, and
how can we optimize our shipping processes to improve sales?
 The South Region has the largest number of repeat purchases, despite the fact
that just 16% of orders come from that region.
 On the other side, the West has the biggest total number of orders, but a
smaller percentage of repeat consumers than any other area.
 The heaviest weight in standard shipping is given to all of the places where an
item was purchased, regardless of location.

4. Are there specific customer segments that are particularly lucrative, and how can we
tailor our marketing and sales strategies to target these groups more effectively?
 The order value is quite close to being the same across all types of categories;
nevertheless, total sales for the consumer segment are the largest; this suggests
that the majority of sales are made to consumers as opposed to home offices,
which make up the smallest portion of overall sales.
 Additionally, based on the segments, every order is between 70 and 80 percent
a repeat purchase.

The company may generate an inferential sales forecast report using the aforementioned data
items by doing statistical analysis on the collected data. To begin things rolling, you need to
be aware of the fact that the total amounts of money earned by all three groups are about
comparable to one another. This indicates that the company must make the upkeep of a varied
portfolio across a variety of industries a major priority in order to guarantee a continual flow
of money.
The product category known as "office supplies" is the one that gets the most orders, closely
followed by the category known as "technology" and the category known as "furniture." On
the other hand, the average order value for office supplies is a lot smaller when compared to
the average order value for furniture and technology. This indicates that the company should
have a primary emphasis on growing the average order value for Office Supplies while
concurrently maintaining high levels of sales for Furniture and Technology.

The category that sells the most items overall is "telephones," followed by "seating,"
"cabinets and shelving," and "other," respectively. If the company wants to see an increase in
sales, it has to give some serious consideration to the possibility of making financial
investments in these niche areas.

In comparison to the other shipping options that are accessible, the standard delivery option
has the highest number of repeat customers, with over seven of them. This indicates that the
primary attention of the firm should be spent on ensuring the smooth operation of its
Standard delivery service in order to keep the pleasure of its existing clients. The customer
retention rate for same-day delivery is the lowest of all the services offered by the
organisation; thus, the corporation should consider boosting it.

According to the data that we have collected, the Western area receives the most orders,
whilst the Southern region has the largest proportion of clients who have ordered from them
before. It is critical for the company to direct its attention on elevating the percentage of
returning clients in the Western area while simultaneously keeping the rate of growth in sales
in the Southern region on an upward trajectory.

Despite the fact that consumer sales provide the great bulk of the company's income, the
average order value is quite stable across all product categories. According to the information
shown here, in order for the company to achieve better success in terms of sales, it will need
to shift its attention completely towards the consumer market.

The company may then utilise inferential statistics to create estimates about the performance
of future sales based on the information presented here. The firm may, for instance, anticipate
quarterly or annual sales for each product category and sub-category individually using time-
series analysis. This would allow for more accurate planning. Thanks to the machine learning
algorithms, the company would also be able to determine which customers have the highest
likelihood of becoming repeat purchasers. This would enable the company to advertise in a
manner that was more targeted towards the appropriate audience. It is possible to make
choices that are data-driven, which in turn boost both growth and profitability, with the
support of a prediction report that was prepared via the use of inferential statistics.

Part 5:
It is possible that the organisation will make use of the data obtained in Task 4 in order to
figure out which products or product categories are the most well-liked by its clients in order
to get a response to the first query in the list. According to the information gathered from
sales, the subcategories "Phones," "Chairs," and "Storage" are the most profitable within the
total category. It's possible that the corporation may conduct smart marketing campaigns or
run special deals in order to bring more attention to the need for these products. If the firm
wishes to continue seeing increase in its sales, it should also consider investing money in the
subcategories that have been mentioned.

In order for the business to offer an answer to the second question, it will need to establish
which sites are the most profitable. The data acquired in Step 4 should be able to assist with
this determination. While the Western region has the most orders, the Southern region has the
highest percentage of customers who make subsequent purchases. It is possible for the
corporation to expand its presence there by concentrating its marketing efforts and
promotional activities on the residents of that area. The corporation may also concentrate on
comparable areas by making use of demographic and socioeconomic data in order to achieve
the objective of growing sales.

The organisation will be able to analyse how each delivery choice impacts customer retention
and happiness by using the data acquired in Task 4, which was the fourth task. According to
our observations, the majority of our customers choose to have their items delivered by
standard shipping, and of those customers, more than seven percent end up shopping with us
again. The business may improve its shipping methods by keeping an eye on orders in real
time and making sure they are always delivered on schedule.

The data from Task 4 may be able to assist the organisation in answering the fourth point by
shedding light on lucrative niches within its customer base. It would seem that the consumer
sector is the most profitable, since between 70 and 80 percent of purchases come from
previous purchasers. The firm may be able to boost its marketing and sales to these subgroups
by developing advertising campaigns targeted to certain niches and by running discounts to
persuade customers to purchase from them again.
The corporation may use inferential statistics to develop a sales prediction report that
extrapolates data from Task 4 in order to propose a solution to the fifth problem. Using time-
series analysis, the corporation might, for example, forecast quarterly or yearly sales for each
product category and sub-category separately. After this, the corporation may make accurate
estimations about the amount of money it can expect bringing in and adjust its sales methods
in accordance with these projections.

The examination of the company's sales data enables one to develop a number of
recommendations for how data analytics might improve the decision-making process inside
the business.

1. Suggestion for boosting profits from trending items:

Because the data has revealed which products and categories are most frequently
purchased by consumers, suggestions can now be made to increase revenue from
these types of acquisitions. It is possible that the corporation will use data analytics to
determine the exact attributes that have led to the success of some products. This will
enable the company to market or advertise such products more effectively. Utilising
split-testing methods is another method that the company can use to evaluate the
effectiveness of different advertising campaigns.
2. Sales should be increased by recommending expansion into high-performing areas:
The analysis has also shown the regions that have the highest sales, which is what led
to the proposal that the sales reach be increased in these regions. The use of data
analytics may be of assistance to a business in determining the demographic
tendencies, economic conditions, and cultural factors that contribute to the success of
specific places so that the business may expand its activities there. By using this data,
sales may be increased in places that are comparable to those targeted. The use of
machine learning algorithms to anticipate revenues in unexplored regions and fine-
tune corporate expansion initiatives is another potential use of this technology.
3. Suggestions for enhancing transport operations:
Because the data showed that the shipping method used had an effect on customers'
happiness, which in turn had an effect on subsequent purchases, it is suggested that
delivery procedures be improved. A corporation is able to evaluate which components
of shipping—time, money, and dependability—have the most effect on the customers'
total pleasure by using data analytics. Because of this information, we are able to
provide superior service to our clients and simplify our shipping processes. In
addition, with the aid of machine learning algorithms, the organisation is able to
improve its logistics and estimate when packages will be sent.
4. Advice for zeroing down on profitable clientele niches:
The analysis has found a few important customer subsets that offer the most lucrative
prospects. It is advised that these client subsets be sought first since they represent the
greatest potential for profit. The business may use data analytics to establish critical
attributes of these segments, such as age, income, and region, in order to better adjust
marketing and sales strategies to target these groups in order to increase revenue. It's
possible that consumer involvement and targeted advertising might both benefit from
this data. In addition, the business may be able to enhance its marketing and sales
operations by using machine learning algorithms to anticipate the activities of clients.
5. In order to forecast sales for the future year:
Advice for sales forecasting based on the data from this year: the study reveals
encouraging patterns for the next year. Data analytics may be used by organisations to
provide sales projections for the next year. This is accomplished by determining the
factors that have the greatest impact on sales, such as economic developments, the
actions of competitors, and customer behaviour. When all of this information has been
compiled, sales projections for the following year will be much closer to reality. In
light of the company's future estimates, pricing and sales strategies may also be fine-
tuned via the use of machine learning algorithms.

Integrating data from other sources, such as customer feedback, social media, and even rivals,
may further enhance the analytical architecture of organisations that work with large amounts
of data. The data collected from social media platforms may provide insight into the
sentiments and patterns of consumers, and the data collected via surveys and other feedback
channels can be used to provide superior service to clients. You may evaluate your own
performance and identify areas for improvement by using the information you get about the
other competitors. These new data sources may be merged with the past sales data in order to
build a more robust analytics platform. Doing so would allow for a more in-depth knowledge
of both the success of the firm and the behaviour of its customers.
References:
1. The rise of e-commerce and importance of data analytics in modern decision-making
have shaken up the retail industry considerably in recent years. [Source: McKinsey &
Company - The Future of Retail: 6 Trends to Watch (2017)]

2. Historical sales data informs current sales estimates, inventory management decisions,
price strategies, and promotional activities in the retail industry. [Source: Forbes -
How Retail Analytics Can Boost Your Bottom Line (2018)]

3. The architecture for data analytics in retail must incorporate procedures for cleansing,
standardising, and verifying the data to ensure its high quality. [Source: CIO Review -
Retail Analytics in the Age of Big Data (2017)]

4. Retailers may use a plethora of data types, including information gathered from social
media platforms, data regarding website traffic, data regarding the weather, and data
regarding the company's rivals, to better respond to customers' wants and
requirements by adjusting its stock, prices, and marketing campaigns. [Source:
Deloitte - Retail Trends 2019 (2019)]

5. The global retail industry is predicted to be worth a total of $31.88 trillion by 2023.
[Source: Statista - Retail Industry Worldwide: Statistics & Facts (2021)]

6. Adhering to all current data protection and privacy requirements is crucial for retailers
to protect client privacy without compromising on their commitment to ethics.
[Source: The Guardian - Why Retailers Need to Take Data Protection Seriously
(2018)]

7. The offered structure of the data analytics platform has the potential to significantly
improve the decision-making process in the selected retail organisation by examining
both financial and non-financial data. [Source: Forbes - How Retail Analytics Can
Boost Your Bottom Line (2018)]

8. "The Role of Data Analytics in the Retail Industry" by Christian Wiese and Matthias
Fank: This academic article discusses the growing importance of data analytics in the
retail industry, particularly in the context of online and omnichannel retailing. It also
explores the challenges that retailers face in implementing data analytics, such as data
quality issues and the need for skilled analysts.
9. "Data Analytics for Retail: Know Your Customers to Grow Your Business" by
Oracle: This white paper provides an overview of how data analytics can help
retailers better understand their customers and improve their operations. It covers
topics such as customer segmentation, personalization, supply chain optimization, and
fraud detection. It also includes case studies of retailers that have successfully
implemented data analytics strategies.