Background I recently joined Quantium as a data analyst in the retail analytics team and report to Zilinka, the VP of Data Science. Our clients from the grocery data team have sent us 2 datasets i.e a year’s worth of potato chips transactions and customer data for a region. Named QVI_transaction_data.csv & QVI_purchase_behaviour.csv respectively. My task entails exploring and preparing the data & deriving insights to form our recommendations for our client, Julia i.e the chips category manager. The insights will inform the supermarket’s strategic plan for the chips category in the next half year.

Extra features/variables were taken into consideration when analyzing customer segments including:

• Size of the packages
• Brand names

Some of the metrics important for this analysis were:

• Are customers spending more per chips packet over time?
• Are there more customers than chips purchases? Implying that customers are multi-pack buyers with an aim to understand customer segments and their chip purchasing behaviour

Some visualizations that helped in answering the questions above include

After various analyses such as EDA, trend, statistical the target segment was identified as Mainstream YOUNG SINGLES/COUPLES. Some interesting findings include: i) Larger proportions of sales are from the Budget - OLDER FAMILIES, Mainstream - YOUNG SINGLES/COUPLES, and Mainstream - RETIREES customers. ii) The high sales proportion by Mainstream - YOUNG SINGLES/COUPLES is due to there being more of them compared to other buyers. iii) Mainstream - YOUNG SINGLES/COUPLES are also likely to pay more per packet of chips compared to other customer categories. This suggests that there could be more impulsive buying among clients in this category. iv) Mainstream - YOUNG SINGLES/COUPLES are 23% more likely to buy Doritos Corn Chips compared to the rest of the population.

Therefrom, the following recommendations and next steps were proposed: i) Our client may strategically place the Tyrells Chips near shelves that are most frequented by Mainstream - YOUNG SINGLES/COUPLES. It’s only packaged in 165g. They could add a few Kettle Chips packaged in 175g & 150g ii) Quantium can help the Chips Category Manager with recommendations of where these shelves are and further help them with measuring the impact of the changed placement.