Descriptive Analytics is defined as the analysis of data to generate descriptive information about that data. This information can be used to answer questions such as “what happened?” or “what is happening?”
Descriptive Analytics vs. Business Intelligence vs. Predictive Analytics
Descriptive Analytics is sometimes confused with other similar terms, such as business intelligence or predictive analytics. However, there are some key differences between these terms. Business intelligence is focused on generating information that can be used to make business decisions, while predictive analytics uses historical data to make predictions about future events. Descriptive Analytics lies somewhere in between these two extremes, providing descriptive information that can be used to understand past events or trends.
Descriptive Analytics Examples
- An analysis of customer purchase data to understanding spending patterns
- An analysis of website traffic data to understand which pages are most popular
- An analysis of social media data to understand how people are talking about a brand
As you can see, Descriptive Analytics can be used to answer a variety of questions. However, one thing all these examples have in common is that they focus on understanding the data, rather than making decisions based on the data.