We built this case study for STAT 482: Capstone in Analytics for Business. Our work uses the Sample Superstore dataset to study sales, profitability, discounting, product performance, and regional patterns through Tableau dashboards and written analysis.
We focused on one main question: are stronger sales translating into sustainable profit?
To answer that, we analyzed:
- Sales and profit trends from 2014 to 2017.
- Profitability by product category and customer segment.
- The relationship between discounting and profit.
- Regional sales and profit patterns.
- Top and bottom product performance.
We used the Sample Superstore dataset, which contains 9,994 order-line records and 21 variables. The data includes order dates, ship dates, regions, states, customer segments, product categories, sub-categories, sales, quantities, discounts, and profit.
The original public dataset source is Kaggle:
https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/vivek468/superstore-dataset-final
We used:
- Tableau for dashboards, visual analytics, calculated fields, filters, and product ranking.
- Microsoft Word for the written report.
- Microsoft PowerPoint for the presentation.
- CSV data for the Tableau source file.
We created three main Tableau dashboards:
- Executive Overview: total sales, total profit, profit ratio, average discount, and time trends.
- Profitability Drivers: category profit, segment profit, discount impact, and profitability heatmap.
- Regional and Product Insights: state-level sales, top products, bottom products, and interactive filters.
- Total sales reached about $2.30M and total profit reached about $286K.
- Overall profit margin was about 12.47 percent.
- Sales increased over time, but profit moved with more volatility.
- Technology was the strongest product category by profit.
- Furniture was the weakest product category by profit.
- The Consumer segment contributed the largest share of profit.
- Higher discounts were often linked with lower or negative profit.
- The West region had the highest sales and profit, while the Central region had the lowest profit.
Based on our analysis, we recommended that management:
- Reduce aggressive discounting and use clear discount thresholds.
- Prioritize Technology because it has stronger profit performance.
- Review Furniture pricing, costs, and product positioning.
- Strengthen Consumer segment retention while improving segment diversification.
- Customize product and pricing strategies by region.
- Reevaluate products that consistently produce weak sales or weak profit.
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
assignment/ |
Original case assignment brief |
data/ |
Source dataset used for the analysis |
reports/ |
Final PDF reports |
reports/editable/ |
Editable Word report files |
presentations/ |
Final presentation deck |
tableau/ |
Tableau workbook |
tableau/exports/ |
Exported Tableau sheets and dashboard slides |
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
data/Sample - Superstore.csv |
Source dataset used for the analysis |
tableau/interactive-analytics.twb |
Tableau workbook |
tableau/exports/interactive-analytics-all-sheets.pdf |
Exported Tableau sheets |
tableau/exports/interactive-analytics-all-sheets.pptx |
Tableau sheet export in presentation format |
tableau/exports/interactive-analytics-dashboard.pptx |
Tableau dashboard export |
presentations/case-4-retail-performance-presentation.pptx |
Final presentation deck |
reports/case-4-retail-performance-report.pdf |
Final written report |
reports/editable/case-4-retail-performance-report.docx |
Editable final written report |
reports/case-4-individual-report-mohammed.pdf |
Individual report version |
reports/editable/case-4-individual-report-mohammed.docx |
Editable individual report version |
assignment/case-4-assignment-brief.pdf |
Original case instructions |
Start with reports/case-4-retail-performance-report.pdf for the full written analysis. Then open presentations/case-4-retail-performance-presentation.pptx for the presentation flow. To inspect the dashboards directly, open tableau/interactive-analytics.twb in Tableau. We keep the data in data/Sample - Superstore.csv, and the workbook is set up to look for that file from the project structure.
We licensed our original coursework in this repository under the MIT License. The Sample Superstore dataset remains subject to its original source terms from Kaggle and its data owner.