HowtodocohortanalysisinIncorta?Cohortanalysisisthegroupingofcustomersintocohorts,basedontheiracquisitiondate.Thishelpscomparesalescontributionsovertimeacrossdifferentcohorts.Ithelpsanswerquestionslike“What%ofcurrentyear’ssalescanbeattributedtocustomersacquiredthisyearvs.prioryears?”ThiskindofanalysiscanbedoneinIncortausingacombinationoffeaturesrecentlyintroducedintheIncortaanalyticsplatform;levelbasedmeasuresandIncortatable.Thiswrite-upexplainshowthesetwofeaturescanbeusedinconjunctiontodocohortanalysis.Step1:CreateanIncortatable.TheIncortatableallowsyoutomaterializeanaggregatedqueryasanewtableinthephysicalschema.GeneratinganIncortatableissimilartobuildinganinsightintheAnalyzerUI.Theonlydifferenceisthatthisaggregatequeryismaterializedin-memoryandcanberefreshedeverytimetheparenttablesinthesameschemaarerefreshed.

Step2:Next,withintheIncortatable,calculatethecustomeracquisitionyeartodeterminecohort.Thisrequirescalculatingthefirstpurchasedateforagivencustomerbyregionandcountryandaddingthiscalculatedvalueforeverysalestransactionforthatgivencustomer.Thiscanbeachievedusinglevelbasedmeasuresformula.TheexampleshownbelowisbasedonthesampleSALESschemathatisavailableaspartoftheIncortainstallation.

Usingthisformulainanaggregatedquery,youcandeterminerevenuebycustomerbyyearandalsobyyearofcustomeracquisition.

ClickDoneandsavetheIncortatable.Youwillseethatanewtableiscreatedwithallthematerializedcolumns.Let’scallthistableCohortAnalysis.Step3:Next,loadtheIncortatable.Thiscanbedoneeitherbyloadingtheindividualtableorbyinitiatingafullorincrementalloadontheschema.SeescreenshotbelowforschemaloadjobdetailsandhowtheIncortatableisrefreshedastheverylaststepintheloadprocess,afteralltheothertableshavebeenrefreshed.

Note:TheIncortatableneedstobeinthesameschemaastheparenttablesfortheIncortatablerefreshtobesynchronizedwiththeparenttableloads.Step4:NowthatwehavematerializedtheaggregatequeryusinganIncortatable,wearereadytobuildthecohortanalysisonthedashboard.ThecustomeracquisitionyearthatwehadcreatedintheIncortatableasalevelbasedmeasureisnowusedinthisinsightasacoloringdimensiontoshowcasewhatpercentageofcustomerrevenueineachyearcanbeattributedtothedifferentcohorts.Inthisexamplebelow,almost30%ofthesalesin2010canbeattributedtocustomerswhomadetheirfirstpurchasein2005.

IncortatableandlevelbasedmeasuresarepowerfulanalyticfeaturesintheIncortaplatform.Theycanbeusedinconjunctiontocreatepowerfulaggregateinsights.AnothernicefeatureoftheIncortatableistheabilitytocreatejoinswithothertablesinthephysicalschemalayer.