🎯 Project Overview
Explore the dynamics of Walmart sales with this comprehensive analysis. This project investigates weekly sales across different stores, examining various factors such as holidays, temperature, fuel prices, CPI, and unemployment rates to reveal trends and insights in Walmart's sales performance.
By analyzing 6,435 weekly sales records across multiple stores, this study uncovers patterns and relationships between external economic factors and retail performance.
📊 Dataset Description
The dataset comprises 6,435 rows and 8 columns capturing comprehensive weekly sales data:
- Store: Store identification number
- Date: Week of sales recording
- Weekly Sales: Total sales for the given store and week
- Holiday Flag: Binary indicator for special holiday weeks (1) or regular weeks (0)
- Temperature: Average regional temperature during the week
- Fuel Price: Cost of fuel in the region
- CPI: Consumer Price Index reflecting inflation
- Unemployment: Regional unemployment rate
Data Quality
Excellent data quality: No missing values, no duplicates. Complete time-series data covering multiple years of weekly sales across various stores.
🔍 Analysis Focus
- Weekly Sales Trends: Examining sales patterns over weeks and across different stores
- Holiday Impact: Quantifying the effect of holiday weeks on sales performance
- Temperature Analysis: Exploring correlations between weather and consumer behavior
- Fuel Price Effects: Analyzing how gas prices influence shopping patterns
- CPI Correlation: Understanding the relationship between inflation and sales
- Unemployment Impact: Evaluating how job market conditions affect retail sales
- Seasonal Patterns: Identifying seasonal trends in consumer spending
📈 Exploratory Data Analysis
Numerical Feature Distributions
Statistical distribution of all numerical variables in the dataset.
Correlation Heatmap
Relationships between sales and various economic factors.
Seasonal Sales Patterns
Year-over-year seasonal trends in weekly sales performance.
Holiday Impact Distribution
Distribution and impact of holiday weeks on sales across years.
Yearly Data Coverage
Distribution of sales data across different years.
🎉 Key Insights
- Holiday Premium: Holiday weeks show significantly higher sales, with clear spikes during major shopping periods
- Seasonal Trends: Strong Q4 performance driven by Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping seasons
- Temperature Effects: Moderate correlation between temperature and sales, with extreme weather impacting shopping behavior
- Economic Sensitivity: Weekly sales show moderate inverse correlation with unemployment rates
- Fuel Price Impact: Higher fuel prices correlate with reduced sales, suggesting decreased consumer mobility and spending
- CPI Relationship: Consumer Price Index shows complex relationship with sales, reflecting purchasing power dynamics
- Store Variation: Significant variation in sales patterns across different store locations, indicating regional economic differences