Excel project analyzing profitability across an 8-store fashion retail chain.

Tool: Microsoft Excel Dataset: 4,200 transactions, Jan–Dec 2025, 8 stores across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt & Ibadan

Problem Statement

UrbanThread, an 8-store fashion retail chain operating across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan, has grown organically over the past few years without a centralized system for tracking store-level and category-level performance. As a result, leadership has limited visibility into which stores and product categories are genuinely profitable versus which are underperforming, masked by revenue figures that look healthy on the surface but hide shrinking margins driven by heavy, inconsistent discounting. Without this visibility, resource allocation decisions (inventory, pricing, marketing spend) are being made on instinct rather than data.

Business Objective

To analyze full-year 2025 sales transaction data and:

• Identify the highest and lowest performing stores by both revenue and profit margin
• Determine which product categories drive profit versus which erode it
• Investigate the relationship between discounting practices and margin performance
• Deliver clear, actionable recommendations for the Regional Sales Director ahead of the next quarterly business review

My Approach

1. Consolidated and cleaned raw transaction-level sales data (4,200 orders, Jan–Dec 2025) into a formal Excel Table
2. Built PivotTables breaking down Revenue, Cost, and Profit by Store, Category, and Month
3. Calculated profit margin % at store and category level to assess efficiency beyond raw revenue
4. Cross-analyzed discount rates against margin to test whether discounting drives underperformance
5. Visualized findings with charts (store margin comparison, monthly revenue trend, category revenue mix) and compiled everything into a single Dashboard sheet
6. Translated findings into specific, prioritized business recommendations

Tools & Techniques Used

Microsoft Excel: Tables, PivotTables & PivotCharts, formulas (AVERAGE, TEXT/DATEVALUE), number formatting, Merge & Center, data labels, dashboard layout design