Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded by Sam Walton in nearby Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law on October 31, 1969. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses. In India, Walmart operates under the name of Flipkart Wholesale.
Throughout the year, Walmart hosts a number of promotional markdown sales. The four biggest holidays—the Super Bowl, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas—are preceded by these markdowns. The evaluation gives five times more weight to the weeks that include certain holidays than the ones that don't. Modelling the effects of markdowns on these holiday periods in the absence of complete/ideal historical data is one of the challenges this competition presents. There are 45 Walmart locations spread throughout several regions, and historical sales information is accessible.
Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue, with about US$570 billion in annual revenue, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in May 2022.
Conventional retail stores still play a prominent role in a world dominated by Ecommerce. Retail is the process of selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit. From groceries to clothing to electronics, customers keep flooding the gates of retail stores to satisfy their needs. As time has passed, retailers have had to evolve in order to keep up with changes in demands and the ever-changing mindset of customers. One such retail industry juggernaut that has kept up with the demands of customers as well changed the face of the retail industry for the better is Walmart Inc.
Walmart Inc is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. They have many stores across the globe and it is the largest retail company by revenue.
In addition, Walmart runs several promotional markdown events throughout the year. These markdowns precede prominent holidays, the four largest of which are the Super Bowl, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The weeks including these holidays are weighted five times higher in the evaluation than non-holiday weeks.
As of July 31, 2022, Walmart has 10,585 stores and clubs in 24 countries, operating under 46 different names. Out of which we have chosen 45 stores for basic analysis.
We have historical sales data for 45 Walmart stores located in different regions. Apart from these, weekly data of Fuel price, Holiday, Temperature with some other features are also present in the data set.
Walmart, one of the top retailers in the US, would like to make accurate sales and demand predictions. Each day, specific occasions and holidays have an impact on sales. Data on sales are available for 45 Walmart locations. Unforeseen demand is a hurdle for the company, and occasionally stock runs out because of a bad machine learning system. A perfect machine learning algorithm will precisely estimate demand and take into account variables like the CPI, unemployment rate, and other economic indicators.
Using the aforementioned features, we have to predict the weekly sales obtained in various stores.
Total 8 attributes are provided in the data set including the target variable i.e. the weekly sales generated in the stores.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Store | The store number |
| Weekly_Sales | The sales of a given store in a given week |
| Date | The week of sales |
| Temperature | Average temperature in a store region (in ℉) during the week of sales |
| FuelPrice | Price of fuel in the region of a given store |
| CPI | Consumer price index |
| Unemployment | Unemployment rate of a given store region |
| IsHoliday_Flag | Whether the week of sales is a special holiday week or not |
- Improving Store Checkout: By using Predictive Analysis, the stores can anticipate demand at a certain week and determine how many Sales Representatives / Employees are needed.
- Managing the Steps of Supply Chain: The company optimizes the routes to the shipping dock and tracks the number of times the product is accessed before it reaches the Customer's destination. Also, it uses the data to analyze transportation lanes and routes for the company's trucks. These data help Walmart keep transportation costs down and schedule an appropriate time for drivers.
- Optimizing Product Assortment: By analyzing customer preferences and shopping patterns, Walmart accelerates the decision-making on how to maintain stocks. Big Data provides insights on new items and discontinued products.
- Personalizing Shopping Experience: With Big Data, Walmart analyzes the shopping preferences of the customers to develop a consistent and delightful shopping experience and much more…