Google continuously monitors and analyzes the needs of the retail world, pushing innovation in its products and services to help maximize results in an increasingly competitive and demanding market.
Accurately balancing investment, pricing, promotions, product assortment, technology and shopping experience at both the physical point and online is required of companies of all sizes, but keeping up is not easy.
The good news is that many have realized that cloud technology can help them; in fact, with the support of a trusted partner who has technical knowledge and experience, it is possible to put the right plan in place to move forward successfully.
What this article is about:
The benefits of Google Cloud retail
Google Cloud helps not only accelerate digital transformation but also reinvent business through data-driven innovation, let's look together at the main benefits and follow up with some use cases.
Lower costs with modernized infrastructure
Promote retail transformation with infrastructure modernization, reduce on premise data center costs with Google Cloud.
Built on the same flexible, reliable, and scalable infrastructure that powers YouTube, Google Search, and other Google products globally, Google's hosted eCommerce and data-scaling capabilities help you easily manage your users' peak shopping moments, giving your team the confidence and time to focus on innovation and improving the customer experience.
Leverage the value of your retail data
Change customer experience and store operations in real time to drive your business. Integrated data and analytics offerings promote immediate insights to accelerate innovation through smarter use of customer, product and supply chain data.
Artificial intelligence is easy to use and machine learning capabilities are embedded within Google's system of solutions and products, making them accessible and easily deployed throughout the business.
Innovate quickly
Google Cloud enables you to seamlessly build, automate and scale applications to deliver new user experiences for customers, partners and employees.
Our technology leadership in multi-cloud and hybrid solutions enables you to rapidly build applications that improve operations and meet your buyers' expectations. Release applications that can run anywhere without vendor lock-in.
Protect your customers and transaction data
Another important aspect is related to the trust users have in your company.
Implements best-in-class security with features specifically designed to protect customer data and eCommerce sites, including controls and tools to help detect phishing and other cybersecurity threats.
The same technological security that supports Google's private global network helps protect your data and encryption by default. In addition, strict retail-specific compliance standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are met.
Creates a collaborative and connected workforce
Connect your business and client teams with Google Workspace, the market-leading collaboration platform. You can make collaboration and communication faster and more effective with cloud applications such as Gmail, Documents, Calendar and Meet.
Chrome Enterprise enables IT teams to ensure business continuity with a modern operating system and cloud-native devices that offer remote maintenance, sharing and reduced cost of ownership.
Retail transformation
With Google Cloud Google Cloud can help retailers and accelerate innovation in four key areas, become customer centric and data driven by taking care in data analysis for better marketing, forecasting and insights. Aim for omnichannel growth by deploying eCommerce with reliability, scalability and flexibility. Create engaging and convenient experiences for customers and improves the workforce.
Why Google Cloud for retail?
AI and advanced ML
Google's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) help you optimize product assortment, improve supply chain, and build customer loyalty throughout the retail value chain.
Best of Google
Every day hundreds of millions of people turn to Google to help them with their shopping. Google Cloud offers seamless integration with YouTube, Google Shopping, G Pay, Google Assistant and Google Maps to better serve your online and in-store customers, increasing conversions.
Transparency and flexibility
Google's multi-cloud and open source solutions protect your business from vendor lock-in. You only pay for what you use; this is a huge advantage for managing business events, such as those in peak season for example.
Speed, scalability and adaptability
Google Cloud enables exceptional digital experiences during peak buying times without sacrificing performance or reliability. Together we can improve your experience by working closely with engineering teams.
Best in class solution
Don't forget that you own your data; Google will never use it for any purpose other than what is necessary to meet contractual/legal obligations. The Google Cloud security model, world-scale infrastructure and unique ability to innovate will help keep your organization secure and compliant.
Culture of innovation
Retail experts work side by side with your teams to solve the biggest challenges in unique ways-access to Google Cloud engineering, analytics and security professionals help drive innovation throughout your organization.
Success stories with Google Cloud in retail
Shopify
Scalability to new levels with Google Cloud
Shopify is the market-leading eCommerce platform that helps people start selling online, in any MarketPlace.
With more than 1 million merchants in more than 175 countries and 60% growth per year, it surpassed eBay in 2019 and became the second largest eCommerce platform after Amazon.
Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the company has more than 5,000 employees and revenues of $1.6 billion in 2019.
From 2016 to 2019, companies on Shopify contributed $319 billion in economic activity worldwide.
The challenge
For the first 12 years, Shopify served its merchants through its on-premise technology. The company's growth, along with related challenges to meet demand related to Black Friday or Cyber Monday and flash sales (beyond expectations), led it to explore a new cloud-based strategy to successfully scale and meet the needs of its customers.
The solution
In recent years, Google Cloud has fueled Shopify's rapid growth from 600,000 to more than 1.5 million merchants, with a desire to create new experiences ready to scale. The partnership has focused on three key areas:
- Ready for the peak season
Google Cloud has helped Shopify since 2018 to successfully scale on major shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as during flash sales.
The platform's operation on Google Cloud helped ensure Shopify's success with unexpected, and unprecedented, growth during the pandemic, when the number of new stores on Shopify increased by 71 percent over the previous quarter.
- Greater business intelligence
Shopify leverages Google Cloud's Big Data technologies to boost its business
on an intelligence platform to ensure access to information throughout the organization and better serve its customers.
- Innovation through co-development
Working together, Shopify and Google Cloud engineers have extended the
functionality of some Google products. The have collaborated for example on feature improvements for the Anthos application modernization platform to help meet the specific needs of the Shopify team. The implementation of these improvements benefited Shopify, but they also improved performance for the entire retail ecosystem.
Why Google Cloud for Shopify?
Shopify and Google Cloud have shared values with respect to open source, security, performance, and scalability, making them ideal partners for a truly global cloud platform. Leveraging Google's deep knowledge of large-scale IT infrastructure, Shopify ensures that every engineer can focus on deployments and shape the future of commerce on a global scale.
- Growth at a rapid pace
Shopify has grown from 600,000 to 1.5 million merchants since its partnership with Google Cloud, resulting in 150 percent growth in merchant sales.
- High season success
The company processed almost 2x more orders during Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2018 as in 2017, with 11,000 orders per minute and 100,000 requests per second for long periods.
Etsy
Delivering personalized experiences to shoppers around the world
Etsy is the world's largest marketplace for unique and creative goods. It provides a platform on which 3.1 million creators sell more than 50 million items to 60.3 million customers.
Founded in 2005, Etsy's motto is "keeping commerce humane."
While many retailers are currently focused on creating a personalized experience, Etsy has always been inherently personalized.
The company's biggest advantage over other retail platforms has been its ability to offer customers something special that they cannot find on other retail sites.
The challenge
The rise of online shopping and the company's unique offerings constantly drove its growth. As the business scaled, the Etsy team needed to ensure that their IT infrastructure was able to grow with the business and support growing customer needs. As Etsy's product catalog grew along with the number of customers, it was able to provide personalized experiences including relevant recommendations and search results without latency issues.
The solution
The Etsy team conducted a thorough search for the right cloud provider and found Google Cloud as the best partner for them.
Google Cloud offered the technology services and capabilities they needed to support their business. It also had a similar culture of innovation and shared their values on sustainability and clean energy. All of this made the strategic choice for the cloud venture easier and fairer. The partnership focused on three key areas:
- Migration of lift and shift data
The Etsy team leveraged cost data to identify inefficiencies in the system. By calculating units of cost usage, developers began to analyze detailed data on unforeseen computational costs, enabling Etsy to improve the efficiency of its platform and meet its sustainability and spending goals.
- Maximizing energy and saving costs
The migration to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) was the first step in a partnership based on how to drive innovation, support their business, and optimize core values such as sustainability. Etsy is looking forward to leveraging GCP ML and recommendations
capabilities, continuing to reduce overhead and TCO, improving analytics with BigQuery, and maintaining a clean cloud environment.
- The road to the future of innovation
The migration to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) was the first step in a partnership based on how to drive innovation, support their business, and optimize core values such as sustainability. Etsy is looking forward to leveraging GCP ML and recommendations
capabilities, continuing to reduce overhead and TCO, improving analytics with BigQuery, and maintaining a clean cloud environment.
Why Google Cloud for Etsy?
Etsy selected Google Cloud as its cloud partner for migration because of the values on sustainability and innovation, as well as the technical capability that GCP offered. Their strong collaboration enabled the Etsy team to recognize results immediately after implementation and co-development plans to improve business and technology KPIs through future development.
- Large-scale data migration
Etsy in-depth cloud assessment process by providing a clear understanding of which systems need to be part of the initial migration and which could be migrated
subsequently, enabling Etsy to migrate 5.5 petabytes of data up for a scalable cloud environment in just 8 months.
- Saving
After the migration, Etsy was able to recognize a 42% reduction in computing costs. Along with cost data analysis to improve efficiency, Etsy has also adopted
Google Cloud managed services, which helps reduce infrastructure overhead and can lead to additional optimization costs.
- Energy saving
With the computing flexibility that GCP offers, Etsy can honor its commitment to sustainable growth. By migrating to Google Cloud, Etsy has been able to save more than 50 percent in computing power while still supporting its needs during peak periods.
