The report I found for Target is the total revenue: percentage change from prior year by quarter over the last four years
Respond to at least two of your classmates by commenting on their posts. Do you see any additional value in their data? Though two replies are the basic expectation for class discussions, for deeper engagement and learning you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you. Continuing to engage with peers and the instructor will further the conversation and provide you with opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real-world experiences with the discussion topics.
Abigail Kilgore
6:42am
Mar 11 at 6:42am
The report I found for Target is the total revenue: percentage change from prior year (Links to an external site.) by quarter over the last four years. The table below shows the structure of each data point. There is a percent that indicates by what amount total revenue grew in that quarter compared to the same quarter the prior year. This data was measured over a regularly spaced amount of time, every quarter, making this a time series data set (Sharpe, 2019). This data set also includes quantitative data. The percentages reflecting the change in total revenue are measurable quantities. While it is not indicating, it might be assumed that the percent change is reflected by dollar amounts. However, this could be a crucial omission in the report, impacting the utility and understanding of the report. The report does indicate that the total revenue represented is from merchandise sales, net of expected returns, online and in store sales, and other revenue. One important factor when analyzing this dataset is some of the background information to 2020’s results. Most people are familiar with the “pandemic panic” that happened in early Q1 last year as most areas entered shutdown. To better understand the impact the pandemic had, it would be good to include a separate set of data for 2020 indicating what the 2020 forecast was and how that forecast compared to LY’s data as well. That will give more visibility to understanding what behaviors are repeatable versus what was a one-time spike. Some other important factors in this report could be what channels were most popular for these sales and how did it compare to profit margins. While this report is broad in nature, I am able to utilize it as a starting point to better understand what additional datasets are needed to understand the full picture. With that in mind, I would begin looking for additional reports relating to the different channels of sales and profit margin to fill in those gaps.
Data Point #1: Q4, 2019 (1.8%)Time-series and quantitative. This data point shows where Target was sitting right before the pandemic. While it does show an increase over the prior Q4, it is not a substantial increase. This point in particular will be useful to compare as a benchmark for 2021’s Q4 as it will be a more “normal” year, in theory, with how consumers handle COVID-19.
Data Point #2: Q1, 2020 (11.3%)Time-series and quantitative. This data point needs additional information to better understand when the growth started and was it consistent throughout Q1 or just at the end when the panic shopping started. This is where the profit margin analysis would be beneficial to see if it was all the essentials that caused this skyrocket or were there other factors as well. The data from this point can be used as a comparison in the next Q1 to see if it is achievable to replicate, but realistically this data point will be discarded.
Data Point #3: Q4, 2020 (21.1%) Time-series and quantitative. This data point will be utilized by shareholders and executives for years to come to best understand how Target drove their digital sales campaign. Again, more data regarding the breakdown between store sales and online sales would be helpful. The campaign used during this quarter was the first of its kind at Target and proved to be successful. Forecasters will be able to utilize the trends from this quarter to plan for and execute future Q4s.
In conclusion, this report will be beneficial to forecast and create goals for years to come, but additional information is required to dig into the why’s and how’s behind each data point.
ReferencesSharpe, N. D., De Veaux, R. D., & Velleman, P. F. (2019). Business statistics (4th ed.). Retrieved from https://www.redshelf.com (Links to an external site.)total revenue: percentage change from prior year (Links to an external site.)
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