Pareto analysis in Tableau - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

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

📋 Request: Your manager wants to identify the top products that contribute to 80% of total sales to focus marketing efforts.

📊 Data: You have monthly sales data for various products including Product Name, Sales Amount, and Month.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Pareto chart in Tableau showing products ranked by sales contribution and cumulative percentage to highlight the vital few products.

Sample Data

Product Name	Sales Amount	Month
Alpha	12000	January
Beta	8000	January
Gamma	6000	January
Delta	4000	January
Epsilon	3000	January
Zeta	2000	January
Eta	1000	January
Theta	500	January

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 analysis.

2

Step 2: Create a bar chart with Product Name on Rows and SUM(Sales Amount) on Columns.

Drag 'Product Name' to Rows, drag 'Sales Amount' to Columns, set aggregation to SUM.

Expected Result

Bar chart shows total sales per product.

3

Step 3: Sort the products in descending order by SUM(Sales Amount).

Right-click 'Product Name' in Rows, choose Sort, sort by Field, select SUM(Sales Amount), descending.

Expected Result

Bars are ordered from highest to lowest sales.

4

Step 4: Create a calculated field named 'Running Total Sales' to calculate cumulative sales.

RUNNING_SUM(SUM([Sales Amount]))

Expected Result

Calculated field computes cumulative sales as you move down the product list.

5

Step 5: Create a calculated field named 'Total Sales' to get total sales for all products.

WINDOW_SUM(SUM([Sales Amount]))

Expected Result

Calculated field shows total sales across all products.

6

Step 6: Create a calculated field named 'Cumulative Percentage' to find cumulative sales percentage.

[Running Total Sales] / [Total Sales]

Expected Result

Calculated field shows cumulative sales as a percentage of total sales.

7

Step 7: Add 'Cumulative Percentage' to the Columns shelf next to SUM(Sales Amount) to create a dual-axis chart.

Drag 'Cumulative Percentage' to Columns, right-click and select Dual Axis.

Expected Result

Chart shows bars for sales and a line for cumulative percentage.

8

Step 8: Synchronize the axes and format the 'Cumulative Percentage' axis as percentage.

Right-click on the right axis, choose Synchronize Axis, then format to Percentage with 0 decimals.

Expected Result

Axes are aligned and cumulative percentage is easy to read.

9

Step 9: Add a reference line at 80% on the cumulative percentage axis to highlight the Pareto threshold.

Right-click on cumulative percentage axis, Add Reference Line, set value to 0.8, label '80% Threshold'.

Expected Result

Reference line appears at 80% to identify vital few products.

10

Step 10: Format the chart with clear titles, axis labels, and tooltips for accessibility and clarity.

Set chart title to 'Pareto Analysis of Product Sales', label axes as 'Product' and 'Sales / Cumulative %'.

Expected Result

Final Pareto chart is clear, accessible, and ready to present.

Final Result

Product Sales Pareto Chart

| Alpha  | ██████████████  | 33% |
| Beta   | █████████       | 55% |
| Gamma  | ██████          | 71% |
| Delta  | ████            | 82% | <-- 80% Threshold
| Epsilon| ███             | 90% |
| Zeta   | ██              | 96% |
| Eta    | █               | 99% |
| Theta  | ░               |100% |

Bars represent sales amount; line shows cumulative %.

✓Top 4 products (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta) contribute about 82% of total sales.

✓These top 4 products exceed the 80% cumulative sales threshold.

✓Focus marketing on these top 4 products to maximize impact.

Bonus Challenge

Create a Pareto analysis that updates dynamically by month using a filter.

Show Hint

Use Tableau's filter shelf to add 'Month' filter and ensure calculated fields recalculate based on selected month.