1.

INTRODUCTION

The Retail Transactions Dataset provides a rich and comprehensive snapshot of

customer purchases within a retail environment. This dataset captures a wide range of
transactional details, including product information, customer demographics (if available),
payment methods, and store-level data. Retailers can leverage this dataset to gain valuable
insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and operational efficiency. Each
transaction provides key details that, when aggregated and analyzed, reveal patterns and
trends that can drive better business decisions.

At its core, the dataset likely includes both numerical and categorical variables, such as
product prices, discounts, transaction dates, and store locations. These variables are essential
for understanding how different factors, such as pricing strategies or seasonal promotions,
impact customer purchasing decisions. For instance, analyzing temporal data can help
retailers identify peak shopping times, while store-level data can reveal regional sales
patterns and product preferences. By drilling down into the data, retailers can better
understand which products perform best under certain conditions and adjust their inventory or
marketing strategies accordingly.

The dataset can also serve as a foundation for advanced analytics and predictive modeling.
Retailers can apply machine learning techniques to forecast future sales, predict customer
churn, and optimize pricing strategies. Additionally, customer segmentation models can be
built to target specific customer groups more effectively, allowing for more personalized
marketing and improved customer retention. Overall, this dataset offers retailers a wealth of
actionable insights to enhance their operations, boost sales, and improve customer
satisfaction.
 1.1 SYNOPSIS

The Retail Transactions Dataset is a rich compilation of transactional data that

captures the details of customer purchases in a retail environment. It provides insights into
various aspects of retail operations, including product sales, customer behaviour, and store
performance. This dataset is an invaluable resource for analysing the relationships between
pricing, promotions, customer demographics, and purchasing decisions. Retailers can use this
data to uncover patterns in consumer behaviour, such as peak buying times, best-selling
products, and the impact of discounts or promotions on sales.

With a variety of numerical and categorical variables, such as product prices, transaction
dates, store locations, and payment methods, this dataset enables in-depth analysis of sales
trends across different dimensions. For example, by analysing the transaction timestamps,
retailers can identify high-traffic periods and optimize staffing and inventory levels.
Similarly, examining product categories and price data can help assess the effectiveness of
pricing strategies and promotions, guiding future discount campaigns and pricing models.
Geographic data, if included, can reveal regional preferences, allowing for tailored marketing
strategies based on local demand.

In addition to descriptive analysis, this dataset can be used for predictive modeling and
advanced analytics. Machine learning algorithms can forecast future sales trends, identify
potential customer churn, and optimize inventory levels based on past sales data. Customer
segmentation models can help businesses better understand their audience, leading to more
personalized marketing efforts that enhance customer engagement and loyalty. By leveraging
these insights, retailers can make data-driven decisions that improve operational efficiency
and drive profitability.
 1.2 DATA OVERVIEW

This Dataset captures key details of customer purchases, including transaction IDs,
product lists, total costs, payment methods, and store locations. It provides insights into
customer behavior, sales trends, and the impact of discounts and promotions across various
stores and regions.

COLUMN NAME COLUMN DESCRIPTION

TRANSACTION ID A unique identifier for each transaction,
represented as a 10-digit number. This
column is used to uniquely identify each
purchase.
DATE The date and time when the transaction
occurred. It records the timestamp of each
purchase
CUSTOMER NAME The name of the customer who made the
purchase. It provides information about the
customer's identity.
PRODUCT A list of products purchased in the
transaction. It includes the names of the
products bought.
TOTAL ITEMS The total number of items purchased in the
transaction. It represents the quantity of
products bought
TOTAL COST The total cost of the purchase, in currency. It
represents the financial value of the
transaction.
PAYMENT METHOD The method used for payment in the
transaction, such as credit card, debit card,
cash, or mobile payment.
CITY The city where the purchase took place. It
indicates the location of the transaction
STORE TYPE The type of store where the purchase was
 made, such as a supermarket, convenience
store, department store, etc.
DISCOUNT APPLIED A binary indicator (True/False) representing
whether a discount was applied to the
transaction.
CUSTOMER CATEGORY A category representing the customer's
background or age group.
SEASON The season in which the purchase occurred,
such as spring, summer, fall, or winter.
PROMOTION The type of promotion applied to the
transaction, such as "None," "BOGO (Buy
One Get One)," or "Discount on Selected
Items."
SHEET
 2. DATA PREPROCESSING

2.1 DATA CLEANING:

Data cleaning is a crucial step in preparing the dataset for analysis. It includes
handling missing values identifying and correcting inconsistencies and ensuring that the data
is in the correct format.

# Step 1: Remove Duplicates

# Check for duplicates

print(f"Number of duplicates before: {df.duplicated().sum()}")

df.drop_duplicates(inplace=True)

print(f"Number of duplicates after: {df.duplicated().sum()}")

# Step 2: Handling Missing Values

# Check for missing values

print("Missing values per column before handling:")

print(df.isnull().sum())

# Step 3: Check for any remaining missing values

print("Missing values per column after handling:")

print(df.isnull().sum())

# Step 4: Handling Outliers (for total_sales as an example)

# Define a function to detect outliers based on Z-score or IQR

Q1 = df['total_sales'].quantile(0.25)

Q3 = df['total_sales'].quantile(0.75)

IQR = Q3 - Q1

# Identify outliers outside 1.5 * IQR range

outliers = df[(df['total_sales'] < (Q1 - 1.5 * IQR)) | (df['total_sales'] >

(Q3 + 1.5 * IQR))]

print(f"Number of outliers detected: {len(outliers)}")

# Optionally remove outliers (if desired)

df_cleaned = df[~df.index.isin(outliers.index)]

# Final Check of the cleaned dataset

print("Data after cleaning:")

print(df_cleaned.info())

2.2 DATA CONVERSION:

In data conversion, the goal is to ensure that all columns in the dataset have the correct
data types and are formatted properly. The most common conversions include Converting
date columns to datetime format. Converting categorical columns to categorical types or
encoding them if needed. Ensuring numerical columns are properly formatted as int or float

# Step 1: Data Type Conversion (if applicable)

# Convert the transaction date to datetime format if it isn't already

df['Date'] =pd.to_datetime(df['Date'])

df.dtypes

2.3 TEXT PREPROCESSING:

Text data preprocessing is a crucial step when preparing data for analysis. In this dataset,
there are several categorical columns with textual data that must be encoded into numerical
form for analysis to understand them

# 1. Lowercasing all text columns

text_columns = ['Customer_Name', 'Product', 'City', 'Customer_Category',

'Store_Type', 'Payment_Method']

df[text_columns] = df[text_columns].apply(lambda x: x.str.lower())

# 2. Removing special characters from text columns

df[text_columns] = df[text_columns].apply(lambda x: x.str.replace(r'[^a-zA-

Z\s]', '', regex=True))

# 3. Tokenization - Optional for text fields if you want tokens as lists

(Not always needed)

df['Product_Tokens'] = df['Product'].apply(lambda x: x.split())

# 4. Handle missing values in text columns by replacing with 'Unknown'

df[text_columns] = df[text_columns].fillna('unknown')

# 5. Encoding categorical text data (Label encoding for simplicity)

label_encoders = {}

for column in ['Customer_Category', 'Store_Type', 'Payment_Method']:

le = LabelEncoder()

df[column] = le.fit_transform(df[column])

label_encoders[column] = le

2.4 DATA AGGREGATION:

Data aggregation involves grouping the data based on specific columns and
performing aggregations such as sum, mean, count, etc., on other columns. In the context of a
retail transactions dataset, to aggregate data to calculate total sales per day, per product, or per
customer.

#Grouping by transaction date and summing up total sales daily sale

# 1. Total Sales per Day

s = df.groupby('Date')['Total_Cost'].sum().reset_index() # Use
'Total_Cost' instead of 'total_sales'

daily_sales.columns = ['Date', 'total_sales_per_day']

# 2. Average Sales per Transaction

# Grouping by transaction date and calculating the mean of total sales

average_sales = df.groupby('Date')['Total_Cost'].mean().reset_index()

average_sales.columns = ['Date', 'average_sales_per_transaction']

print("Average Sales per Transaction:")

print(average_sales.head())

print("Total Sales per Day:")

print(daily_sales.head())

2.5 DATA SPLITTING:

Data splitting is a crucial step in machine learning and data analysis. It involves
dividing your dataset into subsets for training and testing purposes, ensuring that you can
evaluate how well your model generalizes to unseen data.

Training set :Used to train the model.

Testing Set: Used to evaluate the model's performance on unseen data.

# Step 1: Choose features and target variable

# Adjust the feature columns and target column based on the actual dataset.
# Example: Assuming 'Total_Cost' is the target, and 'Quantity' and
'Item_Price' are features.

# Check if the columns exist in the dataset before proceeding

required_columns = ['Total_Cost', 'Total_Items'] # Adjust based on your

dataset

for col in required_columns:

if col not in df.columns:

raise ValueError(f"Column '{col}' not found in dataset")

# Defining X (features) and y (target)

X = df[['Total_Items']] # Replace with actual feature columns

y = df['Total_Cost'] # Replace with the actual target column

# Step 2: Handle missing values (Optional: This will drop rows with missing
values)

X = X.fillna(0)

y = y.fillna(0)

# Step 3: Split the dataset into training and testing sets

X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2,

random_state=42)

# Step 4: Print the shape of the splits

print(f"Training features shape: {X_train.shape}")

print(f"Testing features shape: {X_test.shape}")

print(f"Training target shape: {y_train.shape}")

print(f"Testing target shape: {y_test.shape}")

2.6 NORMALIZATION AND SCALING

Normalization and scaling are common steps in data preprocessing, especially when
you are working with numerical data that has varying ranges. Scaling ensures that numerical
features are on a similar scale, which is particularly important for algorithms that rely on
distance measurements (like k-NN, SVMs, or gradient-based algorithms).

CODING:

numerical_cols = ['Total_Cost', 'Toatal_Items'] # Replace 'total_sales',

'quantity' with actual column names from your DataFrame

# Checking if the columns exist in the dataset

numerical_cols = [col for col in numerical_cols if col in df.columns]

# Step 2: Handle missing values before scaling (scalers cannot handle NaN
values)

df[numerical_cols] = df[numerical_cols].fillna(0)

# Normalization (Min-Max Scaling)

# Initialize MinMaxScaler

min_max_scaler = MinMaxScaler()

# Apply Min-Max scaling on the numerical columns

df[numerical_cols] = min_max_scaler.fit_transform(df[numerical_cols])
 3. DATA ANALYSIS

TRANSACTION ANALYSIS:

Analyse transaction patterns, like the distribution of total cost and number of items per
transaction.

CODING:

# Distribution of Total Cost

plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))

sns.histplot(df['Total_Cost'], bins=30, kde=True)

plt.title('Distribution of Total Cost in Transactions')

plt.xlabel('Total Cost')

plt.ylabel('Frequency')

plt.show()

# Distribution of Total Items

plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))

sns.histplot(df['Total_Items'], bins=30, kde=True)

plt.title('Distribution of Total Items Purchased in Transactions')

plt.xlabel('Total Items')

plt.ylabel('Frequency')

plt.show()

OUTPUT:
 2. EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS (EDA)

It is used to understand distributions, relationships, and trends in the data. This includes
visualizing the data and analyzing summary statistics.

CODING:

plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))

sns.boxplot(x='Payment_Method', y='Total_Cost', data=df)

plt.title('Total Cost Distribution by Payment Method')

plt.xlabel('Payment Method')

plt.ylabel('Total Cost')

plt.xticks(rotation=45)

plt.grid(True)

plt.show()

OUTPUT:
SALES TREND OVER TIME :

Analyze sales over time to identify trends or seasonality.

CODING :

# Convert 'Date' column to datetime format

df['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Date'])

# Aggregate total sales per month

monthly_sales = df.groupby(df['Date'].dt.to_period('M')).agg({'Total_Cost':
'sum'})

# Plot monthly sales trends

plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))

monthly_sales.plot(kind='line', legend=False)

plt.title('Total Sales Over Time')

plt.xlabel('Month')

plt.ylabel('Total Sales')
plt.show()

OUTPUT:

PAYMENT METHOD ANALYSIS:

Analyze the preferred payment methods used by customers.

CODING

# Payment method distribution

payment_method_counts = df['Payment_Method'].value_counts()

# Plot payment method distribution

plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6))

payment_method_counts.plot(kind='pie', autopct='%1.1f%%', startangle=140)

plt.title('Distribution of Payment Methods')

plt.ylabel('')

plt.show()

OUTPUT:
 4. DATA VISUALIZATION

DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL ITEMS PURCHASED :

Visualize the distribution of the number of items purchased per

transaction.

python

CODING:
plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))

sns.histplot(df['Total_Items'], bins=30, kde=True, color='green')

plt.title('Distribution of Total Items Purchased per Transaction')

plt.xlabel('Total Items')

plt.ylabel('Frequency')

plt.grid(True)

plt.show()

OUTPUT:

SALES BY CITY:

Analyze sales distribution across different cities.

CODING:

# Total sales by city

city_sales=df.groupby('City')
['Total_Cost'].sum().sort_values(ascending=False)

# Plot sales by city

plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))

city_sales.plot(kind='bar', color='purple')

plt.title('Total Sales by City')

plt.xlabel('City')

plt.ylabel('Total Sales')

plt.xticks(rotation=45)

plt.show()

OUTPUT:

TOP 10 MOST PURCHASED PRODUCTS:

 Visualize the most frequently purchased products.

CODING:

# Top 10 most purchased products

top_products = df['Product'].value_counts().head(10)

# Plot top products

plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))

top_products.plot(kind='bar', color='orange')

plt.title('Top 10 Most Purchased Products')

plt.xlabel('Product')

plt.ylabel('Purchase Frequency')

plt.xticks(rotation=45)

plt.show()

OUTPUT:
PAYMENT METHOD DISTRIBUTION :

Analyze the payment methods used in transactions

CODING:
# Count payment method occurrences

payment_method_counts = df['Payment_Method'].value_counts()

# Plot payment methods

plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6))

payment_method_counts.plot(kind='pie', autopct='%1.1f%%', startangle=140,

colors=['lightblue', 'orange', 'lightgreen'])

plt.title('Distribution of Payment Methods')

plt.ylabel('')

plt.show()

OUTPUT :
CORRELATION HEATMAP :

Visualize the correlations between numerical features in the dataset.

CODING:

# Select only numerical columns

numerical_cols = df.select_dtypes(include=['float64', 'int64'])

# Calculate the correlation matrix

corr_matrix = numerical_cols.corr()

plt.figure(figsize=(10, 8))

sns.heatmap(corr_matrix, annot=True, cmap='coolwarm', vmin=-1, vmax=1,

linewidths=0.5)

plt.title('Correlation Heatmap')

plt.show()
OUTPUT :

CONCLUSION

The Retail Transactions Dataset offers valuable insights into retail

operations by capturing key details of transactions, including dates, customer
information, product purchases, total costs, payment methods, and store
locations. This dataset serves as a comprehensive source for understanding
customer purchasing behavior, product demand, and the effectiveness of
promotional strategies.

The analysis revealed several important trends. Sales data over time showcased
seasonal fluctuations, indicating times of increased customer activity and
helping businesses plan inventory and promotions more effectively.
Furthermore, product purchase patterns highlighted which items are most
popular among customers, guiding inventory management and marketing
efforts. Customer demographics and categories provided additional insights into
which segments contribute most to overall sales, enabling businesses to tailor
their marketing strategies to specific customer groups.

In addition, the impact of discounts and promotions on sales was notable,

demonstrating the positive influence of strategic price reductions. This analysis
allows businesses to fine-tune their promotional efforts to maximize
profitability while maintaining customer engagement. Moreover, understanding
the distribution of payment methods and store types helps in identifying
customer preferences, ensuring businesses provide the right payment options
and expand in regions where sales are concentrated.

In conclusion, this dataset offers a robust foundation for data-driven decision-

making across various business functions, including marketing, sales
optimization, and customer engagement. By leveraging the insights gained from
this analysis, businesses can better meet customer needs, improve operational
efficiency, and enhance overall profitability.

FUTURE OUTCOME

The Retail Transactions Dataset presents significant potential for

future applications and outcomes. By leveraging advanced analytical
techniques, this dataset can continue to provide valuable insights into retail
trends, customer behavior, and operational efficiencies. Several potential future
outcomes could be explored to maximize the value of this dataset:

1. Predictive Analytics: The dataset can be used to develop predictive

models for forecasting future sales trends, inventory requirements, and
customer demand. Machine learning algorithms, such as time series
forecasting or regression analysis, can predict future sales based on
historical data, helping businesses optimize stock levels, avoid shortages,
and reduce excess inventory.
2. Customer Segmentation and Personalization: By analyzing purchasing
behavior, customer demographics, and transaction history, more detailed
customer segmentation can be achieved. This segmentation can enable
personalized marketing campaigns, improving customer retention and
enhancing overall satisfaction. Businesses can create targeted promotions
for specific customer segments, leading to higher conversion rates and
sales growth.