Customer Insights with Quantium: Task One Reflection

I tried The Forage Job simulation, and I started with Quantium Task 1 Here is a review of the Task 1.

Task One: Data preparation and customer analytics

Conducting analysis on client's transaction dataset and identifying customer purchasing behaviors to generate insights and provide commercial recommendations.

What I learnt

• Understanding how to examine and clean transaction and customer data.

• Learning to identify customer segments based on purchasing behavior.

• Gaining experience in creating charts and graphs to present data insights.

• Learning how to derive commercial recommendations from data analysis.

Task Overview

Program: Quantium Virtual Experience
Platform: The Forage
Task: Data Preparation & Customer Analytics
Tool Used: Looker Studio
Dashboard: View Interactive Dashboard

📌 Overview

As part of the Quantium Job Simulation, Task One centered on preparing and analyzing retail transaction data to uncover customer behavior patterns and inform commercial decision-making. The process involved end-to-end data handling — from cleaning raw datasets to creating customer segments and deriving actionable insights.

The goal? Transform messy data into meaningful business intelligence.

🧠 Key Learnings

Through this task, I strengthened my ability to:

✅ Clean and structure transactional and customer-level data
✅ Segment customers by demographic and behavioral attributes
✅ Visualize business metrics through dynamic charts and graphs
✅ Derive commercial recommendations from data trends

🗃️ Data Dictionary (Selected Fields)

🛠️ Task Breakdown

1️⃣ Data Preparation

• Checked for missing values, inconsistencies, and duplicates

• Standardized date formats and linked customer demographic data

• Ensured dataset integrity for seamless analysis

2️⃣ Customer Analytics & Segmentation

Used key metrics to uncover purchasing patterns and business drivers:

💡 Key Insights

• Customer Segments:
  Mainstream shoppers led with $749.7K in total sales, followed by Budget ($675.2K) and Premium ($505.5K) segments — indicating high engagement from value-focused customers.

• Lifestage Trends:
  Older Singles/Couples ($401.8K) and Retirees ($366K) topped the spending charts, reflecting strong engagement from mature consumers.

• Sales Over Time:
  December 2018 recorded the highest sales, likely due to festive season demand. February 2019 saw the lowest — a typical post-holiday dip.

• Top Products by Sales:

  • Dorito Corn Chips Supreme 380g

  • Smith’s Crinkle Chips Original Big Bag 380g

  • Smith’s Crinkle Chips Salt & Vinegar 330g

  • Kettle Mozzarella Basil & Pesto 175g

  • Smith’s Crinkle Original 330g

📊 Dashboard Overview

Explore the interactive Looker Studio dashboard, which highlights:

• Sales by customer segment

• Revenue by customer lifestage

• Product-level performance

• Top-performing stores

It serves as a live tool for analyzing business performance and identifying key opportunities at a glance.

🧠 Final Thoughts

This task offered a hands-on deep dive into customer analytics — from wrangling raw datasets to delivering actionable insights. It sharpened my ability to connect numbers with narratives and underscored how data can directly inform commercial strategy.

A standout experience in bridging data with decision-making.