Eight questions of analytics joy

Which do you think is the primary age group target for this site?

• 12-17yo

• 18-24yo

• 25-34yo

• 35-44yo

Answer explanation

The models on the home page seem to be aged 18-24yo. It's likely that there are buyers in other age groups, but they are probably not the 'primary' target

Look again at the product range on the site.

Which product might you expect to be ordered most in the last seven days?_

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Answer explanation

Images of the Orchestra MultiBag are featured on the home page in order to influence the purchase decision. But it is not 100% certain that buyers will be influenced this directly

The mean retail price of all products on this site is VND 743,400.

We forecast that 12 units will be sold each week.

What is the total retail sales forecast for the last 7 days?

• 12 stock keeping units.

• 743,400 VND

• 8,920,800 VND

• Not enough information to make a sales forecast.

Answer explanation

total retail sales forecast = average retail price x SKU sales forecast

How do revenue* data for the last seven days compare with your weekly retail sales forecast?

• Actual revenue is lower than forecast sales

• Actual revenue is higher than forecast sales

• Actual revenue is the same as forecast sales.

Answer explanation

FYI ‘Revenue’ is often used interchangeably with ‘sales’ but it can mean something slightly different

Based on the difference between forecast sales vs. actual revenue, how should you adjust your long-term pricing strategy?

• Because our actual revenue is lower than forecast sales, we should reduce sales price in order to increase the number of items sold

• Because our actual revenue is higher than forecast sales, we can increase our sales price in order to improve our profit margin

• We don't yet have enough data to make an informed change to our pricing strategy

Answer explanation

For non-FMCG items, usually we need to gather data for more than one week to build a reliable model of customer demand.

[cf. price elasticity of demand]

Based on Conversion rate data, how should you adjust your ecommerce strategy?

• The conversion rate is favourable. We should continue collecting data and review the rate in 3 months

• The conversion rate is too low for a designer accessory. We should build our brand and increase our customer loyalty to improve conversions

• The conversion rate is too high for a designer accessory. We need to increase number of visitors even if the conversion rate drops

Answer explanation

Even though actual revenue is close to forecast, the number of visitors is simply too low for this mid-range brand and product. It makes sense to build visitor numbers and widen the possible customer base.

Based on the Top products as a % of revenue data, how should you adjust your stock levels?

• We should discount the worst-selling product to boost sales because we don't want to be left with unsold stock

• We should introduce a seasonal marketing strategy to promote different products at different times of year

• We should follow current customer purchasing behaviour and ensure that we have enough stock of the top product sold

Answer explanation

We don't have enough data over an extended time period to recommend options (a) or (b); but these options are possible, depending on your overall strategy

Based on dashboard data from the last seven days, what would you recommend to the CEO?

• Decrease our retail prices so we can sell more items to our price-sensitive customers.

• Increase the size of our product range so that we can offer more choice to our customers.

• Build a more attractive ecommerce site to improve our returning customer rate.

• Offer online-only discounts on certain products to increase our online store conversion rate.

Answer explanation

These four answers represent the marketing 4Ps. There’s probably not enough product variety at the moment for the target segment of 18-24yo. (c)+(d) are possible. (a) is probably incorrect; it's unlikely that price-sensitive customers will be attracted to this mid-range brand.