By Zohirul Islam
Case Study
How Google Data Analytics Elevated Sales in a Canadian Grocery Store's Produce Department
This case study depicts how I help my employers increase sales by utilizing my knowledge of Google data analytics.
Introduction
In today's competitive grocery retail market, understanding and responding to customer needs is key to driving sales growth and fostering loyalty. This case study explores how a Winnipeg franchise of a Canadian grocery retailer transformed its produce department. The franchise identified and addressed an overlooked segment of its customer base, the Caribbean community, and leveraged customer feedback and market insights to better serve them by offering a wider variety of traditional produce. By focusing on fulfilling unmet needs, the store increased its revenue and improved customer satisfaction, creating a blueprint for how data-driven decisions can lead to sustainable business success.
This case study will demonstrate how small changes can lead to substantial growth when businesses listen to their customers and adapt to their needs through the Google Data Analytics process—ask, prepare, process, analyze, share, and act.
Scenario
The store owner tasked the produce manager and the clerk with a significant challenge: increasing weekly produce department sales by 57%. After thorough analysis, the clerk identified a key opportunity for growth by addressing the unmet needs of the store’s variant community customer base. These customers frequently sought traditional produce items, which were unavailable, leading them to shop at other ethnic grocery stores. By recognizing this gap, the clerk pinpointed a strategic opportunity to enhance customer satisfaction and boost sales through targeted inventory adjustments.
Ask Phase
1. Identify the business task
The primary business task is to increase the produce department's weekly sales by 57% by fulfilling the unmet demand. This requires identifying in-demand items, sourcing them, and measuring their impact on overall sales.
2. Determine key stakeholders
The key stakeholders include:
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Franchise owner
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Store manager
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Produce department staff
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Suppliers
3. Choose the dataset
The datasets needed for this analysis include:
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Inventory and Sales Data: Review historical and current sales data for commonly purchased items, mainly focusing on ethnic produce already in stock (e.g., plantains, okra, yam, lime, kale, etc.) to identify trends.
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Customer feedback data: Specific requests from customers for traditional produce.
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Competitor analysis: Pricing, variety, and customer behavior at local ethnic grocery stores that stock ethnic items from different communities.
4. Establish metrics
The following percentage-based metrics will be used:
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Sales growth (%): Percentage increase in weekly produce sales after adding Caribbean produce.
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Basket size increase (%): Percentage increase in average basket size for Caribbean customers purchasing new items.
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Ethnic produce sales growth (%): Percentage growth in sales of Caribbean produce items.
Prepare
The first step was to gather historical sales data for the produce department, focusing on trends over the past few years. Additionally, customer feedback was collected through direct interaction with the produce staff, identifying specific requests for Jamaican sweet potatoes, yellow yams, purple yams, white yams, breadfruit, cocoa beans, cassava, dasheen, jicama, scotch bonnet, okra, cactus pears, Jamaican avocado, and plantains. Competitor analysis was also performed by surveying local ethnic grocery stores to identify the pricing and availability of similar items.
Breadfruits
Cocoa Yams
Caribbean Avocado
Process
Data was cleaned to ensure accuracy, duplicate records were removed, and produce items were categorized based on ethnic origin. Sales figures were analyzed to identify peak shopping periods for customers, and feedback data was coded to prioritize the most frequently requested items.
Analyze
Once the data was processed, the clerk analyzed the customer trends of the different communities in the store. He also found a trend of increasing the customer base from a specific community and specific ethnic item sales in the store, like yam, plantain, dasheen, cactus pears, okra, sweet potatoes, and cassava. Finally, the potential sales uplift can be analyzed by introducing the items identified as Caribbean produce. Projections were made using the percentage increase in basket size, showing that adding these items could increase weekly sales by 50-60%, which is also subject to meeting the availability of regular good-selling items to the other community, like tomatoes, dates, avocado, bananas, okra, plantain, jalapeño, kale, ginger, garlic, etc.
Share
The findings were presented to the franchise owner and store manager, showcasing the potential growth opportunities through data visualization techniques such as bar charts and line graphs. The sales projections and customer retention rates were highlighted, providing clear evidence of the financial impact of the proposed changes.
Act
Based on the analysis, the store began sourcing the requested Caribbean produce items. Word-of-mouth efforts were also adjusted to target the Caribbean community, emphasizing the availability of these new products. The staff received training on how to promote and handle these items effectively.
Conclusion
This case study illustrates the power of data-driven decision-making in retail. By identifying an unmet need within the Caribbean customer base, the grocery store introduced new produce items, improving customer satisfaction and driving a 57% increase in weekly sales. Through the Google Data Analytics process, the store turned insights into actionable strategies, leading to long-term growth and success.
References
2. https://thespicecentre.com/product/jamaican-coco-yam/
3. https://grocerylistjamaica.com/product/jamaican-white-yam-1lb-407g/
4. https://thespicecentre.com/product/avocado-caribbean-2/
Disclaimer
Due to company guidelines and data protection practices, I am unable to disclose the name of the company or share visuals of our data analytics process. Thank you for your understanding.