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A Clustered Column Chart is one of the best-suited visualization designs for displaying data points within a limited space.
The visualization design can help you display more than one metric in clustered vertical columns. And each clustered column shares the same axis labels. Its vertical bars are organized by categories.
The chart allows you to conduct a direct comparison of multiple data points. More so, it’s straightforward to decode.
Popular and widely used visualization tools, such as Excel, lack ready-made Clustered Column Charts.
However, you can transform Excel into a reliable tool by installing third-party add-ins to access visually appealing and ready-to-use Clustered Column Graphs.
In this blog, you’ll discover:
Before jumping right into the how-to guide, we’ll address the following question: what is a Clustered Column Chart?
Definition: A Clustered Column Chart is a visualization design that uses groups of bars to compare key data points.
The visualization allows you to display insights into subcategories that exist in your data.
Look at the example below.
For example, let’s say your goal is to compare product orders across 4 quarters. Each cluster will represent a quarterly period. The series of columns in the cluster will reflect the total orders of all the months in the respective quarters in a financial year.
The y-axis will depict the sales numbers range for each quarter month. You can easily compare each month’s performance by looking at the size of each column in relation to the scale.
The categories and series displayed in a Clustered Column Chart share the same axis scale. And this helps you to draw reliable insights into the data under analysis.
How to create a Clustered Column Chart in Excel should never stress you.
Keep reading because we’ll take you through Clustered Column Chart examples in the coming section.
You don’t want to miss this.
Let’s discuss examples of Clustered Column Chart Example
Let’s imagine you have an electronics store.
Your goal is to compare sales of different products among 4 quarters of the year.
What’s your go-to chart for the task?
You guessed right if your answer was a Clustered Column Chart.
So, what’s the key takeaway from the data below?
| Quarters | Headphones | Projectors | Home Theaters | TVs |
| Q1 | 20 | 18 | 50 | 85 |
| Q2 | 40 | 30 | 40 | 70 |
| Q3 | 20 | 13 | 15 | 20 |
| Q4 | 45 | 22 | 46 | 40 |
Notice the difference after visualizing the table below.
What are the insights?
How to create a Clustered Column Chart in Excel should never be an Achilles heel for you. Keep reading to discover more.
In the coming section, we’ll take you through the importance of Clustered Column Charts.
Check out the benefits of Clustered Column Graphs below.
One of the critical advantages of a Clustered Column Chart is that it makes the data easier to understand.
And this has a lot to do with how our brain operates. Remember, we’re visual creatures. We use our eyes to process data all the time.
Besides, our brains have been a nonstop visual analysis instrument since birth.
When you take raw numbers and visualize them using different types of charts or graphs, it becomes easier for your brain to decode hidden insights. As a matter of fact, it can make sense of a visualization a thousand times faster than tables.
If it takes you hours to analyze data in tables, a chart, such as a Clustered Column Chart, can cut the time down to minutes.
Yes, you read that right.
A Clustered Column Chart can help you visualize large datasets easily, unlike typical Bar Graphs.
And this is because it can display tons of insights using limited space without clutter. As your data grows, it becomes apparent that basic Bar Graphs can only do so much.
And this is something many of us can attest to.
In the coming section, we’ll take you through how to create a Clustered Column Chart in Excel.
Excel is one of the instruments that business owners use to store, organize, and analyze data. It has a library of business charts and graphs.
But the spreadsheet application lacks a ready-to-use Clustered Column Chart.
We’re not advising you to do away with Excel.
And this is because there’s an amazingly affordable visualization tool that comes as an Excel add-in for data analysis to access insightful and easy-to-customize Clustered Column Charts.
The application is called ChartExpo.
What is ChartExpo?
ChartExpo is one of the best chart add-in for Excel which you can easily install to access ready-made and visually appealing Clustered Column Charts.
This section will use a Clustered Column Chart in Excel to visualize the table above.
You don’t want to miss this.
To install ChartExpo into your Excel, click this link.
To get started with ChartExpo in Excel, follow the steps below:
In a Clustered Column Chart, bars are grouped. And this allows you to display insights into subcategories that exist in your data.
The extra bars allow you to draw rich and in-depth comparison insights.
On the other hand, a Stacked Column Chart is made up of bars divided into subcategories that add up to the whole.
A Clustered Column Chart is one of the best-suited visualization designs for displaying data points within a limited space.
The visualization design can help you display more than one metric in clustered vertical columns. And each clustered column shares the same axis labels. Its vertical bars are organized by categories.
The chart allows you to conduct a direct comparison of multiple data points. More so, it’s straightforward to decode.
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