Identify Causes and Solutions for Fashion Profit Decline
Overview
This question evaluates retail analytics and experimentation skills for a Data Scientist role, focusing on profit decomposition, driver attribution, impact sizing, and causal validation for a fashion retailer.
Boston Consulting Group
Aug 4, 2025, 10:55 AM
Data Scientist
Technical Screen
Analytics & Experimentation
45
0
Timed Case: Fashion Retail Profit Decline — Diagnose and Recommend
Context
You are analyzing a fashion retailer whose profit has declined year-over-year. Assume you have typical retail exhibits for the last 12–18 months vs. prior year: category/SKU, channel, region, price, units, revenue, discounts/markdowns, returns, variable fulfillment/shipping, COGS, and fixed costs.
Task
- Quantitatively decompose the profit decline into drivers (price, volume, mix, discounting/markdowns, returns, variable costs, fixed costs, channel/category mix, etc.). Identify the top drivers by dollar impact.
- Propose 2–3 actionable, data-backed initiatives to restore profitability, with rough impact sizing and how you would validate them (experiments/causal analysis).
- Deliver a concise 60-second executive summary suitable for senior leadership.
Deliverables
- Driver diagnosis (clear, MECE, quantified) with brief methods/assumptions.
- 2–3 prioritized initiatives with back-of-the-envelope impact and a validation plan.
- A 60-second executive summary script.
Guidance
- Prioritize issues with the largest quantitative impact.
- Keep the final summary MECE, clear, and persuasive.
- Make minimal, explicit assumptions where the exhibits are incomplete.
Solution
Login required
Show