Global Superstore: Strategic Market Expansion & Product Selection

I. Dataset

1. Introduction

Dataset stores sales information of some products of a company worldwide
Includes 3 data tables:(The detailed file with the name _"1. Superstore_Sales_Dataset xlxs" _can be downloaded from the above location)

• Orders: fact order
• People: information of salesperson
• Returns: information on returned orders

2. Data dictionary

II. Requirement of the Project

The senior manager wants to see information about the business situation to make a market expansion strategy and decide on strategic product selection.

III. Design Thinking Method

Before developing solutions and visualizing data related to the problem, I will undertake a deep understanding of the problem through the application of the five primary stages of the design thinking process.

IV. Visualization in Power BI

V. Insight

1. General business situation

• In general, revenue tended to increase steadily from 2011 to the end of 2014 with a profit margin of 11.61%. In each year, revenue tends to increase steadily in all categories (category).
• However, in each year, revenue tended to increase steadily in all categories (category) until the fourth quarter and then fell sharply in the first quarter of the following year.
• The total profit YoY and revenue YoY are both reported as positive with 52.35% and 51.55% respectively, which means that the company or investment portfolio has experienced significant growth in both its profitability and revenue over the past year compared to the previous year.
• ThB2C customer group is the main revenue-generating group for the company (51%), followed by Corporate (30%) and Home Office. However, in recent years, revenue from this group has been on a slight downward trend. Revenue structure in 2014 shows that the Home Office customer group tends to increase

2. Market

• The top 3 main revenue-generating markets are APAC (3.59M, accounting for 28.36%), EU (2.94M accounting for 23.24%), and US (2.3M accounting for 18.17%). The proportions between the three categories are evenly distributed in most markets, but Technology products still account for the largest proportion.
• The top 3 countries generating the highest revenue and profit are the United States, China, and India, respectively. Worth the USA accounts for almost 2.4 times as much revenue as the 2nd countries.

3. Product

• Technology and Office Supplies have the largest proportion of Gross Profit Margin (13.99% and 13.69%), double the Furniture industry with a margin of only 6.94%.
• Top 5 sub-categories brought the biggest revenue: Phones (1.7M), Copiers (1.5M), Chairs (1.5M), Bookcases (1.4M), and Storage (1.2M)
• The following Sub-category products have the highest Profit Margin: Paper (24.24%), Labels (20.45%), Envelopes (17.32%), Accessories (17.29%), Copiers (17.13%). However, among them, only Copier and Accessories had high sales. The remaining products are in the group of 5 products with the lowest revenue in the whole company.
• Particularly, Tables is a product with a negative Profit Margin (8.46%) although the revenue is quite good (749K).
• Top 1 product that has the highest profit is Canon ImageCLASS 2200 Advanced Copier, especially since this product is created only in the USA in the top 10 countries by profit and revenue.

VI. My Recommendation

• Research the reasons why sales often drop at the beginning of the year to find the right business development plan. Also, investigate why the table has a negative profit margin.
• Continue to consider expanding into the APAC, EU, and US markets.
  ** In the APAC market, focus on China and India, which bring in high revenue. Concentrate on industries such as Technology and Furniture. Additionally, find out why Australia has the largest revenue in the APAC region but generates only the 3rd highest profit in the whole region.
  ** In the EU market, focus on the United Kingdom and Germany and industries such as Technology and Office Supplies. Unlike APAC, the Furniture industry does not generate much revenue here. Specifically, develop subcategories such as binders, furnishings, and accessories to generate large profit margins with low revenue.
• Promote marketing activities in the 3rd and 4th quarters of each year, focusing on potential products with low sales but high-profit margins, such as Accessories, Art, Papers, and Envelopes, in addition to the products that are already the strengths of the company such as Phones, Bookcases, Copiers, and Chairs.
• Promote up-sale and cross-sale activities to increase the order value.