Google Cloud announces new initiatives with Accenture for retailers

Google Cloud today announced new initiatives with Accenture to help retailers modernize their businesses and benefit from cloud technology, including updates to the ai.RETAIL platform. Accenture’s broad adoption, and deep integration of Google Cloud’s core data analytics, AI, and product discovery capabilities. The two companies have also engaged in go-to-market initiatives to provide retailers with the technology and resources to transform store operations, building on shared customer successes.

ai.RETAIL for Google Cloud

Accenture’s ai.RETAIL is an integrated solution that helps retailers better use data and artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize common systems and programs, such as customer acquisition. , pricing and promotion, marketing, assortment, and supply chain. Starting today, retailers can deploy the ai. The RETAIL platform on Google Cloud, which means it has now been extended to Google Cloud Trusted Infrastructure and integrated with many Google Cloud products and features. New features and benefits of the solution include:

Centralized supply chain analysis:

ai.RETAIL includes a supply chain control tower powered by Accenture’s intelligent supply chain platform. With deeper integration into popular Google Cloud products, such as Looker and BigQuery, customers can now better organize data and provide real-time views of metrics in their most important supply chain, including supply, logistics, inventory and sales. Retailers can then run “what if” simulations, adjust demand forecasts, improve inventory planning, build supply chain segmentation strategies, and more.

Personalized customer experience:

ai.RETAIL now leverages Google Cloud’s Discovery AI solutions for retail. This solution can reduce search abandonment with Google-level search features, deliver personalized recommendations at scale, and help shoppers find products with images. Additional integrations with Accenture’s Customer Data Architecture and Google Cloud Customer Data Platform will enable retailers to disrupt data warehouses and drive intelligent predictive marketing engagements artificial intelligence or machine learning.

Category optimization:

Powered by BigQuery, Looker, and Vertex AI, ai.RETAIL now offers new store clustering capabilities that will help retailers identify, group, and optimize stores with similar characteristics, improving assortment strategy, product space and inventory. This includes recommendations for withholding, reducing or discontinuing specific products, which can be filtered by store or group of stores, and ultimately improving overall sales performance.

“Retailers require solutions that enable them to holistically analyze their businesses and create value across their functional boundaries, but they are often limited by siloed data and legacy infrastructure,”

“Through our work with Accenture, retailers can quickly adopt integrated solutions that apply the best of Google Cloud technology and deliver the true benefits of AI and ML, with tools and capabilities that allow them to continuously optimize their business for today’s complex retail environment.”

Carrie Tharp, vice president of retail and consumer, Google Cloud.

“With shifting consumer buying habits, now more than ever, retailers need to invest in building a digital core—which includes a solid data foundation, machine learning, and AI. Powered by the cloud, these technologies can help our clients spot trends, make decisions faster, and repeatedly reset the business as the market changes,”

“With the best of Accenture’s integrated ai.RETAIL platform and Google Cloud technology, companies can now access products and capabilities to help improve consumer engagement and conversions, and make their supply chain more sustainable.”

Jill Standish, a senior managing director at Accenture who leads its retail industry practice.

“Albertsons Cos. continues to invest in technology to modernize operations and provide even more customer-friendly shopping experiences,”

“With Google Cloud and Accenture, we are integrating technology that enhances our supply chain operations by significantly increasing visibility into our inventory levels, helping us with forecasting and improving on-shelf availability so that customers have greater access to the products they want, wherever they shop.”

Anuj Dhanda, EVP and Chief Information Officer for Albertsons Companies.

Helping retailers modernize their stores

Google Cloud and Accenture are also collaborating on a major new initiative to address the complex challenges retailers face today, including applying AI.RETAIL to help businesses optimize customer experience, artwork and displays, and utilize other technologies and services from both companies. . With greater insight into end-to-end operations, retailers will be able to apply Accenture and Google Cloud technologies to modernize core components of their business. For example, with Google Distributed Cloud Edge technology, companies will be able to seamlessly integrate and scale their cloud infrastructure across their stores, factories, and more. Additional use cases will help retailers improve product discovery, build brand loyalty, and increase customer trust through regulatory compliance.