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SNOWFLAKE CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Intervention Detection for Retail Support

name: app_environment
channels:
  - snowflake
dependencies:
  - matplotlib=*
  - modin=0.28.1
  - seaborn=*
  - snowflake=*


git clone [email protected]:Snowflake-Labs/sfguide-data-engineering-pipelines-with-pandas-on-snowflake.git


{
  "cells": [
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "1dde02fa-0044-4b20-b7bb-10f1a5b3fabb",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell1"
      },
      "source": [
        "### Data Engineering Pipelines with pandas on Snowflake\n",
        "\n",
        "This demo is using the [Snowflake Sample TPC-H dataset](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/sample-data-tpch) that should be in a shared database named `SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA`. You can run this notebook in a Snowflake Notebook. \n",
        "\n",
        "During this demo you will learn how to use [pandas on Snowflake](https://docs.snowflake.com/developer-guide/snowpark/python/snowpark-pandas) to:\n",
        "* Create datframe from a Snowflake table\n",
        "* Aggregate and transform data to create new features\n",
        "* Save the result into a Snowflake table\n",
        "* Create a serverless task to schedule the feature engineering\n",
        "\n",
        "pandas on Snowflake is delivered through the Snowpark pandas API as part of the Snowpark Python library (preinstalled with Snowflake Notebooks), which enables scalable data processing of Python code within the Snowflake platform. \n",
        "\n",
        "Start by adding neccessary libraries using the `Packages` dropdown, the additional libraries needed for this notebook is: \n",
        "* `modin` (select version 0.28.1)\n",
        "* `snowflake`\n",
        "* `matplotlib`\n",
        "* `seaborn`"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "4039104e-54fc-411e-972e-0f5a2d884595",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell2"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "import streamlit as st\n",
        "import matplotlib.pyplot as plt\n",
        "import seaborn as sns"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "d66adbc4-2b92-4d7d-86a5-217ee78e061f",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell3"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "# Snowpark Pandas API\n",
        "import modin.pandas as spd\n",
        "# Import the Snowpark pandas plugin for modin\n",
        "import snowflake.snowpark.modin.plugin\n",
        "\n",
        "from snowflake.snowpark.context import get_active_session\n",
        "# Create a snowpark session\n",
        "session = get_active_session()"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "811abc04-f6b8-4ec4-8ad4-34af28ff8c31",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell4"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "# Name of the sample database and the schema to be used\n",
        "SOURCE_DATA_PATH = \"SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA.TPCH_SF1\"\n",
        "SAVE_DATA_PATH = \"SNOW_PANDAS_DE_QS.DATA\"\n",
        "# Make sure we use the created database and schema for temp tables etc\n",
        "session.use_schema(SAVE_DATA_PATH)"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "0721a789-63a3-4c90-b763-50b8a1e69c92",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell5"
      },
      "source": [
        "We will start by creating a number of features based on the customer orders using the line items.\n",
        "\n",
        "Start with the `LINEITEM` table to create these features so we will start by creating a Snowpark Pandas Datframe aginst it, select the columns we are interested in and then show info about the dataframe, the shape and the first rows."
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "2a091f1b-505f-4b61-9088-e7fd08e16f83",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell6"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "lineitem_keep_cols = ['L_ORDERKEY', 'L_LINENUMBER', 'L_PARTKEY', 'L_RETURNFLAG', 'L_QUANTITY', 'L_DISCOUNT', 'L_EXTENDEDPRICE']\n",
        "lineitem_df = spd.read_snowflake(f\"{SOURCE_DATA_PATH}.LINEITEM\")[lineitem_keep_cols]"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "f360d4de-21f4-4723-9778-ceb8683c81c8",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell7"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "st.dataframe(lineitem_df.head())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "be5d37e2-e990-4e71-b762-41a64845955f",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell8"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "# Get info about the dataframe\n",
        "lineitem_df.info()"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "618f45b8-a2a8-4d08-967e-945d2329335e",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell9"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "print(f\"DataFrame shape: {lineitem_df.shape}\")"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "e53fea0b-2f36-4662-a382-98938a74f2c2",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell10"
      },
      "source": [
        "## Data Cleaning - Filtering and Aggregation\n",
        "\n",
        "Taking a look at different values for `L_RETURNFLAG` and include only line items that was delivered (`N`) or returned (`R`)."
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "2f326c13-ed4c-4e6f-b40e-7e8338c270c4",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell11"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "print(lineitem_df.L_RETURNFLAG.value_counts())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "122cb06a-3a08-4d32-8864-4c8ff8c046b4",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell12"
      },
      "source": [
        "Add a filter to the dataframe"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "7f9c56b7-b2db-4591-97ce-451876e9b9a6",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell13"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "print(f\"Before Filtering: {len(lineitem_df)} rows\")\n",
        "spd_lineitem = lineitem_df[lineitem_df['L_RETURNFLAG'] != 'A']\n",
        "print(f\"After Filtering: {len(spd_lineitem)} rows\")\n",
        "st.dataframe(spd_lineitem.head())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "1f802173-162f-4dff-8567-ade65b9f57f1",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell14"
      },
      "source": [
        "To track the actual discount a customer gets per order, we need to calculate that in a new column by taking the product of the amount of discount (`L_DISCOUNT`), numbers sold (`L_QUANTITY`), and the price of item (`L_EXTENDEDPRICE`)."
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "58f45f3d-3633-424e-b777-467a2ba0b22d",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell15"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "spd_lineitem['DISCOUNT_AMOUNT'] = spd_lineitem['L_DISCOUNT'] * spd_lineitem['L_QUANTITY'] * spd_lineitem['L_EXTENDEDPRICE']\n",
        "st.dataframe(spd_lineitem.head())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "6ec9d862-e957-42b9-9d86-03f2ad3501f7",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell16"
      },
      "source": [
        "Now we want to compute the aggregate of items and discount amount, grouped by order key and return flag.\n"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "578cbdf7-a655-416b-87da-417f7edd35bb",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell17"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "# Aggregations we want to do\n",
        "column_agg = {\n",
        "                'L_QUANTITY':['sum'], # Total Items Ordered  \n",
        "                'DISCOUNT_AMOUNT': ['sum'] # Total Discount Amount\n",
        "             }\n",
        "\n",
        "# Apply the aggregation\n",
        "spd_lineitem_agg = spd_lineitem.groupby(by=['L_ORDERKEY', 'L_RETURNFLAG'], as_index=False).agg(column_agg)\n",
        "\n",
        "# Rename the columns\n",
        "spd_lineitem_agg.columns = ['L_ORDERKEY', 'L_RETURNFLAG', 'NBR_OF_ITEMS', 'TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT']\n",
        "st.dataframe(spd_lineitem_agg.head())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "00dd1299-9bb2-4aba-9f37-b04ca3639892",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell18"
      },
      "source": [
        "## Data Transformation - Pivot and reshape\n",
        "\n",
        "We want to separate the `NBR_OF_ITEMS` and `TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT` by `L_RETURNFLAG` so we have one column for each uinique `L_RETURNFLAG` value.  \n",
        "Using the **pivot_table** method will give us one column for each unique value in `RETURN_FLAG`"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "7f586e8a-017b-4672-80a1-bcc9430a87c3",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell19"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "# This will make L_ORDERKEY the index\n",
        "spd_lineitem_agg_pivot_df = spd_lineitem_agg.pivot_table(\n",
        "                                values=['NBR_OF_ITEMS', 'TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT'], \n",
        "                                index=['L_ORDERKEY'],\n",
        "                                columns=['L_RETURNFLAG'], \n",
        "                                aggfunc=\"sum\")"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "38dd144f-b18b-4673-b8c0-7db6d237ae59",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell20"
      },
      "source": [
        "The **pivot_table** method returns subcolumns and by renaming the columns we will get rid of those, and have one unique columns for each value."
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "6166f8b0-fc8c-451e-9780-3e1f634ccbdd",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell21"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "spd_lineitem_agg_pivot_df.columns = ['NBR_OF_ITEMS_N', 'NBR_OF_ITEMS_R','TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT_N','TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT_R']\n",
        "# Move L_ORDERKEY back to column\n",
        "spd_lineitem_agg_pivot = spd_lineitem_agg_pivot_df.reset_index(names=['L_ORDERKEY'])\n",
        "st.dataframe(spd_lineitem_agg_pivot.head(10))"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "1657bbc7-caf2-461c-9302-6f8d2187e0af",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell22"
      },
      "source": [
        "## Combine lineitem with orders information\n",
        "\n",
        "Load `ORDERS` table and join with dataframe with transformed lineitem information."
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "c910ac10-38b3-4aa4-a7d2-6321243a4a60",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell23"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "spd_order = spd.read_snowflake(f\"{SOURCE_DATA_PATH}.ORDERS\")\n",
        "# Drop unused columns \n",
        "spd_order = spd_order.drop(['O_ORDERPRIORITY', 'O_CLERK', 'O_SHIPPRIORITY', 'O_COMMENT'], axis=1)\n",
        "# Use streamlit to display the dataframe\n",
        "st.dataframe(spd_order.head())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "97d52cd4-a71b-4c72-9137-accdf54b571b",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell24"
      },
      "source": [
        "Use **merge** to join the two dataframes"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "6aee6f94-f33b-4492-9f89-2808c05f07d4",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell25"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "# Join dataframes\n",
        "spd_order_items = spd_lineitem_agg_pivot.merge(spd_order,\n",
        "                                               left_on='L_ORDERKEY', \n",
        "                                               right_on='O_ORDERKEY', \n",
        "                                               how='left')"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "3adc0331-1879-452f-9cc6-dd69f6824974",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell26"
      },
      "source": [
        "Drop the `L_ORDERKEY`column, it has the same values as `O_ORDERKEY`"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "8504a44d-d687-4c8d-af78-4b802901a168",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell27"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "spd_order_items.drop('L_ORDERKEY', axis=1, inplace=True)\n",
        "st.write(f\"DataFrame shape: {spd_order_items.shape}\")\n",
        "st.dataframe(spd_order_items.head())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "a8b050f9-77a9-460a-853b-888963e6a214",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell28"
      },
      "source": [
        "More aggregations grouped by customer (`O_CUSTKEY`)\n",
        "* Total items delivered by customer\n",
        "* Average items delivered by customer\n",
        "* Total items returned by customer\n",
        "* Average items returned by customer"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "code",
      "execution_count": null,
      "id": "36e32341-cc93-4b5d-a5f1-15a15d8ddf69",
      "metadata": {
        "codeCollapsed": false,
        "collapsed": false,
        "language": "python",
        "name": "cell29"
      },
      "outputs": [],
      "source": [
        "# Aggregations we want to do\n",
        "column_agg = {\n",
        "                'O_ORDERKEY':['count'], \n",
        "                'O_TOTALPRICE': ['sum' ,'mean', 'median'],\n",
        "                'NBR_OF_ITEMS_N': ['sum' ,'mean', 'median'],\n",
        "                'NBR_OF_ITEMS_R': ['sum' ,'mean', 'median'],\n",
        "                'TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT_N': ['sum'],\n",
        "                'TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT_R': ['sum']\n",
        "            }\n",
        "\n",
        "# Apply the aggregation\n",
        "spd_order_profile = spd_order_items.groupby(by='O_CUSTKEY', as_index=False).agg(column_agg)\n",
        "\n",
        "# Rename the columns\n",
        "spd_order_profile.columns = ['O_CUSTKEY', 'NUMBER_OF_ORDERS', 'TOT_ORDER_AMOUNT', 'AVG_ORDER_AMOUNT', 'MEDIAN_ORDER_AMOUNT', \n",
        "                             'TOT_ITEMS_DELIVERED', 'AVG_ITEMS_DELIVERED', 'MEDIAN_ITEMS_DELIVERED', \n",
        "                             'TOT_ITEMS_RETURNED', 'AVG_ITEMS_RETURNED', 'MEDIAN_ITEMS_RETURNED',\n",
        "                             'TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT_N', 'TOT_DISCOUNT_AMOUNT_R']\n",
        "st.dataframe(spd_order_profile.head())"
      ]
    },
    {
      "cell_type": "markdown",
      "id": "daf0e441-43d1-4729-bc20-aea8f123befa",
      "metadata": {
        "collapsed": false,
        "name": "cell30"
      },
      "source": [
        "Calculate the total and average discount"
      ]
    }

Overview

This demo shows how to quantify the business impact of customer support interventions in retail using causal inference—end to end inside Snowflake.

It centralizes data preparation, statistical modeling, and visualization in Snowsight Notebooks with Snowpark, enabling teams to measure ROI without running randomized controlled trials.

Key Features

  • Causal Impact Measurement: Estimate the lift in customer spending following support interactions, isolating causation from correlation.
  • Counterfactual Analysis & Visualization: Generate and plot “what would have happened without intervention” using regression-based counterfactuals and confidence intervals.
  • End-to-End in Snowflake: Use SQL for data prep and Snowpark Python with statsmodels for modeling in a single Snowsight Notebook—no data movement.
  • Rapid, Reproducible Setup: A single setup.sql script creates roles, warehouse, database/schema, and loads realistic sample retail data.

How It Works

  • Environment Setup: Execute scripts/setup.sql to create the role, virtual warehouse, database/schema, and populate purchases and support_tickets via stored procedures.
  • Data Preparation: Join purchases to support tickets by customer; compute time deltas (days/weeks) around the intervention; aggregate into a modeling table (support_purchase_analysis) with features like WEEK, INTERVENTION, and INTERVENTION_WEEK.
  • Modeling (Snowpark Python): Pull the prepared table into a pandas DataFrame with Snowpark and fit an OLS model in statsmodels to estimate intervention effects.
  • Counterfactuals & Plots: Set treatment variables to zero to compute counterfactual predictions; visualize actual vs. predicted and counterfactual with a marked intervention point and 95% confidence bands using matplotlib.
  • Execution in Snowsight Notebooks: Import notebooks/0_start_here.ipynb, select the created database/schema and warehouse, add statsmodels and matplotlib, and run cells top to bottom.

Business Impact

  • Quantified Support ROI: Puts a measurable dollar value on support interactions with statistical confidence.
  • Faster, Defensible Decisions: Provides an RCT alternative for production settings where experiments are impractical.
  • Operational Visibility: Reveals effect size and decay over time to optimize staffing, channels, and follow-up strategy.
  • Platform Simplicity: Consolidates data, modeling, and visualization within Snowflake to reduce complexity and cost.

Use Cases and Applications

  • Retail & CPG: Measure the impact of service recovery, returns assistance, and concierge programs on subsequent spend.
  • Marketing & CX: Quantify lift from outreach after negative experiences; prioritize cohorts for proactive support.
  • Subscription/Technology: Assess how support or success calls influence retention, upsell, and expansion.
  • Operations & Strategy: Compare alternative support workflows or org changes using causal analysis instead of full RCTs.
SNOWFLAKE CERTIFIED SOLUTION

This solution was created by an in-house Snowflake expert and has been verified to work with current Snowflake instances as of the date of publication.

Solution not working as expected? Contact our team for assistance.

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SNOWFLAKE FEATURES USED
  • Notebooks
  • Snowpark
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