For efficient data manipulation, the ideal order would be to first merge related tables to create a comprehensive set of records, then deduplicate to remove any redundant information. Lastly, appending additional data, such as from another source or table, ensures that all relevant data is included without redundancy before the final analysis. This order prevents unnecessary duplication of effort, such as deduplicating both before and after appending, which would be less efficient.
In the context of the tables provided, merging would likely involve combining customer information from the online and in-store transaction tables with the customer table. Deduplication would remove any redundant customer records that may exist across these tables. Finally, appending would involve adding any additional transaction records to the master file, ensuring a complete dataset for analysis.