This project was completed as part of a Data Technician Bootcamp to develop practical skills in data analysis using Microsoft Excel. The goal of the project was to explore retail and sales datasets, apply Excel formulas for analysis, summarise insights using PivotTables, and present findings through charts and visualisations.
The project demonstrates how Excel can be used to clean, organise, analyse, and visualise real-world business data.
The analysis focuses on exploring sales datasets to identify patterns in:
- Customer demographics
- Product sales performance
- Regional sales trends
- Market opportunities
The project involves transforming raw sales data into meaningful insights using a range of Excel features.
Several core Excel functions were used to perform calculations and extract insights from the dataset:
SUM– Calculate totals such as sales and commissionSUMIF– Conditional totals based on specific criteriaAVERAGE– Calculate mean valuesAVERAGEIF– Conditional averagesDATE,MONTH,YEAR– Extract and manipulate date informationUNIQUE– Identify unique values within datasetsVLOOKUP– Retrieve related information from tablesSWITCH– Categorise numerical values into groups
Example formula used for categorising sales volume:
=SWITCH(TRUE, C2 > 600, "High", C2 >= 300, "Medium", "Low")
The project also demonstrates fundamental data analysis techniques in Excel:
- Filtering datasets to isolate relevant records
- Sorting data to identify trends and patterns
- Aggregating metrics such as totals and averages
- Organising structured datasets for analysis
PivotTables were used to summarise and explore the data across multiple dimensions, including:
- Country
- Age group
- Gender
- Product category
- Sales volume
This allowed key insights to be identified quickly from large datasets.
Some observations from the analysis included:
- The United States generated the highest adult sales
- Canada had the lowest overall sales performance
- Female customers had higher sales across all age groups
- Certain markets showed no youth sales, highlighting potential market gaps
Sales values were categorised into performance groups using the SWITCH function.
| Sales Volume | Category |
|---|---|
| > 600 | High |
| 300–600 | Medium |
| < 300 | Low |
This helped simplify analysis and made the results easier to interpret.
Charts were created to communicate insights from the data, including:
- Sales by country
- Product sales comparisons
- Demographic sales patterns
- PivotTable summaries
These visualisations help present the findings clearly and make trends easier to understand.
- Microsoft Excel
- Excel Formulas & Functions
- Pivot Tables
- Data Filtering & Sorting
- Charts & Visualisations
excel-sales-analysis/
│
├── datasets/
│ ├── retail_sales_dataset.xlsx
│ └── bike_sales_dataset.xlsx
│
├── analysis/
│ └── excel_analysis_workbook.xlsx
│
└── README.md
Through this project I developed practical skills in:
- Data exploration and analysis using Excel
- Writing formulas to automate calculations
- Using PivotTables to summarise complex datasets
- Categorising and transforming data
- Presenting insights through visualisations
This repository is part of my learning journey in data analytics and data technician training, where I am developing practical skills in data analysis, spreadsheets, and data visualisation.
Future projects will expand on these skills using tools such as Python, SQL, and Power BI.