Bar charts (horizontal and vertical) in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a sales analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants to see a clear comparison of total sales by product category and by region using bar charts.

📊 Data: You have monthly sales data including Product Category, Region, and Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create two bar charts in Tableau: one vertical bar chart showing total sales by Product Category, and one horizontal bar chart showing total sales by Region.

Sample Data

Month	Product Category	Region	Sales Amount
Jan	Electronics	North	12000
Jan	Furniture	South	8000
Feb	Electronics	East	15000
Feb	Clothing	West	7000
Mar	Furniture	North	9000
Mar	Clothing	South	6000
Apr	Electronics	West	13000
Apr	Furniture	East	8500
May	Clothing	North	7500
May	Electronics	South	14000
Jun	Furniture	West	9500
Jun	Clothing	East	7200

1

Step 1: Connect your sales data to Tableau and open a new worksheet.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Data is loaded and ready for visualization.

2

Step 2: Create a vertical bar chart showing total sales by Product Category.

Drag 'Product Category' to Columns. Drag 'Sales Amount' to Rows. Ensure aggregation is SUM.

Expected Result

Vertical bars appear, each representing total sales for a product category.

3

Step 3: Format the vertical bar chart for clarity.

Add axis titles: X-axis as 'Product Category', Y-axis as 'Total Sales'. Use distinct colors for bars.

Expected Result

Chart is easy to read with clear labels and colors.

4

Step 4: Create a horizontal bar chart showing total sales by Region.

Drag 'Region' to Rows. Drag 'Sales Amount' to Columns. Ensure aggregation is SUM.

Expected Result

Horizontal bars appear, each representing total sales for a region.

5

Step 5: Format the horizontal bar chart for clarity.

Add axis titles: Y-axis as 'Region', X-axis as 'Total Sales'. Use consistent colors and ensure bars are sorted descending by sales.

Expected Result

Chart is easy to read with clear labels and bars sorted from highest to lowest sales.

6

Step 6: Combine both charts into a dashboard for side-by-side comparison.

Create a new dashboard. Drag both worksheets onto the dashboard. Arrange vertically or horizontally with titles.

Expected Result

Dashboard shows vertical bar chart for Product Category sales and horizontal bar chart for Region sales side by side.

Final Result

Dashboard: Total Sales Comparison

+---------------------------+  +---------------------------+
| Vertical Bar Chart        |  | Horizontal Bar Chart       |
| Total Sales by Category   |  | Total Sales by Region      |
|                           |  |                           |
| Electronics  ████████████ |  | East        ████████████   |
| Furniture    ████████     |  | West        ███████████    |
| Clothing     █████        |  | North       ██████████     |
|                           |  | South       █████████      |
+---------------------------+  +---------------------------+

✓Electronics is the top-selling product category.

✓East region has the highest total sales.

✓Furniture and Clothing have lower sales compared to Electronics.

✓West and North regions have high sales, South has the lowest.

Bonus Challenge

Add a filter to the dashboard to select sales data by month and see how sales by category and region change.

Show Hint

Use Tableau's filter feature by dragging the 'Month' field to the Filters shelf and then adding the filter control to the dashboard.