Walmart- Store Sales Forecasting

(Use historical markdown data to predict store sales)

Problem Statement

Overview

In this notebook, we are provided with historical sales data for 45 Walmart stores located in different regions. Each store contains many departments, and we must project the sales for each department in each store. To add to the challenge, selected holiday markdown events are included in the dataset. These markdowns are known to affect sales, but it is challenging to predict which departments are affected and the extent of the impact.

Data Description

We are provided with historical sales data for 45 Walmart stores located in different regions. Each store contains a number of departments, and you are tasked with predicting the department-wide sales for each store.

In addition, Walmart runs several promotional markdown events throughout the year. These markdowns precede prominent holidays, the four largest of which are the Super Bowl, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The weeks including these holidays are weighted five times higher in the evaluation than non-holiday weeks. Part of the challenge is modeling the effects of markdowns on these holiday weeks in the absence of complete/ideal historical data.

stores.csv

This file contains anonymized information about the 45 stores, indicating the type and size of store.

train.csv

This is the historical training data, which covers to 2010-02-05 to 2012-11-01.

test.csv

This file is identical to train.csv, except we have withheld the weekly sales. You must predict the sales for each triplet of store, department, and date in this file.

features.csv

This file contains additional data related to the store, department, and regional activity for the given dates.