A machine learning-based application to forecast sales for a large international retail organization.

Summary

The company (client) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in London, England, that specializes in selling clothing, home products and food products. They operate a family of businesses, selling high-quality own-brand products in the UK and internationally, from 1,509 stores and over 100 websites globally. Through their stores, support centres, warehouses, and supply chain they serve nearly 30 million customers each year.

Challenge

The client wanted to analyze the sales data that was generated every week and predict and plan the sales target for the coming weeks based on this past data. The challenge was to create an intelligent system, by making use of machine learning, to facilitate accurate predictions.

Solution

Cloudaeon developed an end-to-end application for the use of the sales managers of the organization. It reads, saves, and processes the past as well as the real-time data to make forecasts about the sales in the future by utilizing machine learning concepts. The end-users are provided with an interface where they can review their current sales with the estimated ones and thus optimize their sales operations.

Technical aspects of the solutions

· Created an end-to-end web application for the users

· Employed machine learning concepts to create a predictive model for sales

· Created an interactive UI with Angular and Node framework

· Deployed database in Microsoft SQL server to make use of enterprise-level functionalities

· Integrated the application in Azure DevOps utilizing CI/CD pipeline

Tools used

· Angular

· Node.js

· Microsoft SQL Server

· New Relic

· Azure DevOps

Business value

With the help of this application, the client was able to plan and design their sales processes and operations in a better way. With the help of accurate predictions, they were able to allocate their resources effectively and optimized their sales business model. Down the line, it led to cost savings due to proper resources utilization and more revenue due to increased sales. The client also rectified the shortcomings of their operations and became proficient in setting better sales targets through the help of this application.