Damian Wong

Retail Revenue Analysis: External Factors Impact Study

Business Task

How do various external factors influence the sales performance of a major retail chain?

Presentation

Retail Sales AnalysisDownload

Notebook

The complete code and analysis can be found in the Walmart Sales Project.ipynb.

Dataset Description

For this analysis, I used the Walmart Sales dataset from Kaggle. This dataset includes information on sales performance, holiday periods, unemployment rates, Consumer Price Index (CPI), and fuel prices across various locations.

Key Findings

  1. Holiday Periods:
    • Holiday periods show significantly higher sales (p < 0.05), with an average increase of $81,631.
    • This highlights the importance of holiday seasons for retail sales and the need for strategic planning during these periods.
  2. Unemployment Rates:
    • Unemployment rates vary substantially across locations, ranging from 4.80% to 13.12%.
    • This variation suggests that local economic conditions significantly impact retail sales.
  3. Consumer Price Index (CPI):
    • There is a weak negative correlation between CPI and sales during both holiday (-0.081) and non-holiday periods (-0.072).
    • This indicates that inflation has a minor but notable impact on consumer spending.
  4. Fuel Prices:
    • The relationship between fuel prices and sales performance is complex, suggesting indirect effects.
    • Fuel prices may influence consumer behavior and logistics costs, which in turn affect sales.

Technologies Used

  • matplotlib and seaborn: Used for creating visualizations to better understand the data and communicate the findings.
  • Python: The primary programming language used for this analysis.
  • pandas: Used for data manipulation and analysis.
  • scipy: Used for statistical analysis to determine the significance of the findings.

Conclusion

This analysis provides valuable insights into how external factors influence the sales performance of a major retail chain. Understanding these relationships can help businesses make informed decisions and develop strategies to optimize sales during different economic conditions and holiday periods.

For more details, please refer to the Retail Sales Analysis.pdf presentation and the Walmart Sales Project.ipynb notebook.