enterprise retail analytics platform Link to heading

Client: National specialty retailer — 600+ store locations, two brands, multi-regional operations

Role: Systems developer and data engineer responsible for end-to-end design, development, and delivery of an automated retail analytics platform

delivery Link to heading

Designed and built a production retail analytics system that automated the daily extraction, transformation, and reporting of point-of-sale transaction data across all store locations for two retail brands. The system replaced manual, delayed reporting with a fully automated pipeline that delivered formatted productivity reports to store managers every morning.

highlights Link to heading

Built a complete ETL-to-reporting pipeline from scratch. Engineered the full data path from Oracle POS extraction through OLAP cube loading to formatted Excel report delivery — a six-stage automated pipeline running daily without manual intervention. The system processed tens of thousands of transactions nightly and produced 21 distinct reports per cycle.

Delivered individual associate-level sales tracking at enterprise scale. Created a reporting framework that broke down sales productivity (gross sales, returns, net sales, transaction counts, units, average dollar per transaction, units per transaction) to the individual employee level across every store, rolling up to district, region, and chain views. This gave store managers the granular visibility needed to manage associate performance and compensation.

Integrated disparate data sources into a unified analytics model. Bridged Oracle POS transaction data with mainframe HR employee records to produce enriched reports that displayed associate names alongside sales figures — requiring a two-pass dimension build process that reconciled cashier IDs from the POS system with employee records from HR feeds.

Designed a multi-dimensional OLAP cube for flexible analysis. Architected a Hyperion Essbase cube with market, associate, time, and measures dimensions supporting ad-hoc drilldown from chain-level totals to individual store associate performance. Implemented fiscal calendar mapping aligned to the retailer’s GERS week numbering system.

Created a self-maintaining automated system. The platform handled its own calendar management, dimension updates, data archival, error logging, and completion notifications. Archive routines compressed and timestamped all intermediate data files. Email notifications alerted operations staff to pipeline completion or failure.

Produced polished, branded deliverables. Built VBA formatting routines (1,500+ lines) that transformed raw OLAP output into professional Excel workbooks with per-store worksheets, branded headers, formatted numbers, and print-ready layouts — ready for direct use by non-technical store managers.

Supported two retail brands with a single codebase. The system served both Hot Topic and Torrid store networks (Regions 20 and 21) with shared infrastructure, parameterized report generation, and brand-specific formatting including logos and naming.

Technical Scope Link to heading

Business Impact Link to heading

• Eliminated manual reporting lag — managers received formatted productivity data every morning instead of waiting days for manually compiled spreadsheets
• Enabled performance-based management — individual associate metrics (ADT, UPT) provided objective basis for coaching, scheduling, and compensation decisions
• Scaled across the organization — single system served two brands, multiple regions, and hundreds of stores with consistent metrics and formatting
• Reduced operational overhead — fully automated pipeline required no daily human intervention after initial deployment
• Provided historical trend analysis — archived data and multi-period reporting (weekly/monthly/quarterly) supported trend identification and seasonal planning

Relevance to Similar Roles Link to heading

This project demonstrates experience with:

• End-to-end data pipeline engineering — from source system extraction through transformation, OLAP modeling, and formatted report delivery
• Enterprise retail analytics — POS data, associate productivity metrics, fiscal calendar systems, multi-store/multi-brand reporting
• OLAP and dimensional modeling — designing cube structures, dimension hierarchies, calculated measures, and substitution variable management
• Cross-system integration — unifying data from Oracle databases, mainframe HR systems, and file-based data feeds into a coherent analytical model
• Production automation — building reliable, self-maintaining batch systems with error handling, archival, and alerting
• Stakeholder-ready deliverables — producing polished, branded output for non-technical business users