IT 223: Data Analysis
Winter 2006
Assignment 8
Due Friday March 10 before 11:30pm by DL Web Submission
Which online discounter has the best deals?
For this assignment you will need to choose two online discounters
(e.g. Amazon, Computer Online, JR.com, etc.). Both of your choices
should offer comparable products that are of interest to you. To make
your results realistic and useful for you, choose products that you
are likely to buy. The goal is to determine which of the two
discounters provides you with better deals.
For your comparison, you will conduct your analysis using a
paired-difference design.
Paired-difference design
For the paired-difference design, each product will be priced on
both of your chosen online discounters. Your analysis will compare
the paired prices.
- Create a list of at least 15 products that both discounters sell.
Try to pick items that are priced in a similar range (e.g. from $25
through $75). This will produce paired differences that approximate a
normal distribution, an assumption of the t-test.
- For each of the products, look up their prices on the Web sites of
both discounters.
- Perform a paired-difference T-Test on your prices using SAS or
the online
Web application shown in class. Here are online versions of the
example SAS programs that will be presented
in class.
- Provide a short summary that describes your data collection and
interprets your results. For some wording examples, see the wording at the bottom of the SAS examples.
Submission
Turn in a report that responds to the instructions. Please use a
word processor. The main body of your report must
include:
- The online discounters you chose.
- A summary of how you collected your data.
- A summary of your data and analysis (no raw data, no computer
output). Graphs are okay, but not required.
- Your interpretation of your analysis.
The main body of your report could conceivably fit on one page.
Writing, presentation and format count.
In addition, provide the following materials in an appendix:
- Your raw data (i.e. the listing of items and prices from both discounters)
- The relevant computer output from your analysis.