In this project, I'm part of Quantium’s retail analytics team. This virtual experience program involves analysing chip purchases at supermarkets. The aim of this project was to evaluate different customers' purchasing behaviours and the performance of trial stores with a new layout to provide insights of customer preferences to the client and a recommendation of whether the trial has been successful.

I was assigned 3 tasks in this project:

• Task 1: Data preparation and customer analytics

• Task 2: Experimentation and uplift testing

• Task 3: Analytics and commercial application

I will follow the steps of the data analysis process: Ask, Prepare, Process, Analyze and Share

Files: QVI_Task1.ipynb, utilize files: QVI_purchase_behaviour.csv and QVI_transaction_data.xlsx

Data analysis to understand the current purchasing trends and behaviours:

• LIFESTAGE: Customer attribute that identifies whether a customer has a family or not and what point in life they are at

• PREMIUM_CUSTOMER: Customer segmentation used to differentiate shoppers by the price point of products they buy and the types of products they buy. It is used to identify whether customers may spend more for quality or brand or whether they will purchase the cheapest options.

Top 3 best-selling brands:

• Kettle
• Smiths
• Doritos

Top 3 Lifestage:

• Retirees 20.38%
• Older Singles/Couples 20.11%
• Young Singles/Couples 19.88%

Customer Type:

• Mainstream 40.26%
• Budget 33.69%
• Premium 26.05%

Total Sales - Top 3 sales driver segments :

• Budget - Older Families (higher quantity per customer in older families)
• Mainstream - Young Singles/Couples (higher customer counts and higher average purchase price)
• Mainstream - Retirees (higher customer counts)

Other facts :

• Customer counts : There are more Mainstream - young singles/couples and Mainstream - retirees who buy chips.
• Average purchase quantity : Older families and young families in general buy more chips per customer.
• Average purchase price : Mainstream midage and young singles/couples are more willing to pay more per packet of chips compared to their budget and premium counterparts (statistical significant).

• Promotion like 'Buy Two Get One Free': Because of their higher average purchase quantity, promotions like this can boost sales.

• Target advertisements: This segment has the majority of customers and thus should be the focus of our marketing. Targeted advertising around areas such as colleges and universities is probably a good strategy.
• Change the display area: Placing some chips next to other young people’s daily necessities will also attract their attention, thereby increasing sales.
• Promotion and repackaging on popular brands and sizes: In addition to Kettle and 175g chips, which is popular among all segments, Doritos and Pringles are popular in this segement. Therefore, we can increase promotion of these chips as well as advice their productors and Suppliers to repackage their products. For instance, they can use more vibrant colors and fonts to gain love from young people. Meanwhile, similar strategy is also useful for 150g and 134g chips.
• Strategies metioned above can be used in combination to maximize the effect.

• Target advertisements: Similar to last segment, we can put targeted advertising because of the large number of customers.
• Limited time sales promotions during daytime: Retired customers are more inclined to shop during daytime, so we can choose products that are popular in this segment for promotion when these customers visit.