You are the Senior manager of a large department store in Hong Kong. The CEO of the department store joining a seminar on “Data analytic in business”. After the seminar, the CEO based on last year's sales figures, as it drops about 15%, so he would like you to set up a business analytic unit in the department store so that it can help the senior management with more data-driven decision-making to increase the sales. You are required to write a proposal to state how to set up this unit to the CEO to seek his approval.

 

Your proposal should contain:

1.     The current background of your department store (Size, sales amount, number of employees, and the organization chart)

2.     Proposed business analytic unit’s budget, functions, resources, structure, and manpower

3.     The problems that the unit needs to solve

4.     Review the current data in the department store and see whether additional data are required and how to gather them.

5.     How to perform the business analytic process and get the result that management required

6.     Visual the result and send it to the senior management for better decision making

 

Suggested steps when doing your assignment:

Step 1. Understand the business process of a department store and try to figure out the sales-related factors

Step 2. Knowing the competence of people that needs for doing business analytics and estimating the size, structure, and major functions of the suggested business analytics unit

Step 3. Identify the current most important problems that need to be solved

Step 4. You should review the existing data inside the department store and see whether any additional data are being required and how to gather it. (You can make your assumption on the original dataset and additional data required) 

Step 5. Based on the data collected, built a suitable model with a suitable algorithm, and get the result

Step 6. Verify and test the result to see whether it is reliable or not

Step 7. Using visualization tools to show business insights to the top management for better decision making  

Step 8. On going process to monitor this analytic model and check its performance

 

• 20% Background information and the suggested formation of the Business Analytic unit

• 10% State the Problems to be solved and business goals in this unit 

• 50% How to perform the business analytic process and list out the major steps

• 10% Stated the expected result with suitable data visualization

• 10% Recommendation to CEO

XXX company is one of the largest retail operators in Hong Kong. Established in 1990, currently they have two flagship stores located in Central Business District (“CBD”). They have 700 employees and total 500,000 sq. ft. of retail selling space. They will expand the business to Kai Tak Development Area, third flagship store will be in business next year in Kowloon East, it is set to be a new landmark in East Kowloon.

With adopting “one-stop shopping” and “customer oriented” concepts, they offer a wide range of goods from daily necessities to luxury products. In additional to physical stores, they also offer “e store”, an online shopping platform, which give customers a 24x7 place for shopping to enhance customer experience.

The sales figures of this year is HK$1,020 million, which recorded 15% drop compared to last year’s figures (HK$ 1,200 million), the company also recorded net loss of HK$130 million this year, as compared to a net profit of HK$150 million in the previous year.

- Develop Creative Messages: Once the targeted segments have been identified, develop creative messages for each segment that will make them feel relevant and appreciated, using language and imagery that resonates with the values and beliefs of each segment. 

- Select Appropriate Media Channels: After identifying target segments, select appropriate media channels to reach those segments in order to maximize effectiveness. Consider online, mobile, social media, television, radio and print options as well as emerging new channels to reach your target audiences most effectively. 

- Measure Effectiveness: measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns in order to gauge ROI opportunities as well as areas where improvements can be made for stronger results in future campaigns.

2.regression trend> select wt kind of products to sell 
- simple way to visualize complex data sets and understand how certain factors are performing compared to others over period of time


3. Optimization > find the formula/ rules to save cost, better vendor management