Australian Pharma Industries architects customer data strategy on Google Cloud

For health and beauty companies, the private cloud is a most ideal data storage strategy, given the nature and sensitivity of their information. However, with growing customer demands, more companies are looking to leverage the capabilities of the public cloud to deepen buyer engagement.

In fact, perfecting the customer experience increases the engagement they have with a brand, and allows businesses to streamline their focus on delivering what consumers really want.

According to a Gartner report, over 75% of all customer communication management implementations will be cloud or hybrid solutions by 2023. The need for change is being driven by the wholesale redesign of customer experiences across both digital and non-digital channels. As such, customer communication management is an important platform for user experience, since it bridges both digital and nondigital experiences, which are essential to maintaining multi-experience services.

In Australia, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API), is partnering with Google Cloud to accelerate its digital transformation strategy, and leveraging data and machine learning to deepen customer engagement.

As one of Australia’s leading health and beauty companies, API (the parent company behind some of the country’s most well-known brands such as Priceline Pharmacy, Soul Pattinson Chemist, and Pharmacist Advice) will be leveraging a host of Google Cloud solutions to unlock advanced customer analytics and build an end-to-end view of its customers across e-commerce, web channels, mobile apps, and API digital health services.

With customers at the heart of their strategy, Dean Matthews, the CTO of API, said Priceline’s Sister Club is Australia’s fifth-largest loyalty program with more than 7.5 million members across the country. They see huge potential in leveraging the platform to curate even more relevant and personalized experiences for their discerning customer base, driven by their shopping preferences and purchase history.

Implementing a digitally-formed data strategy

To make the most of API’s existing data strategy, Google Cloud will integrate loyalty, e-commerce, and customer data components into a single ‘Digital Customer Hub’, hosted on its platform. API plans to modernize its own legacy data platform by leveraging Big Query and Google Cloud AI to analyze its existing data and generate real-time insights about customer behavior, preferences, and propensity to purchase products and digital services.

Complementing the data transformation strategy is Riley. The Google Cloud partner plans to implement Recommendations AI, to deliver curated recommendations across API touchpoints and dynamically adapt to real-time customer behavior and changes in variables like assortment, pricing, and special offers.

“In the highly competitive retail market, data is a strategic differentiator and can unlock powerful benefits for retailers. With Google Cloud, API has the foundation to quickly harness the power of the cloud to deliver insights that create richer, more contextualized customer experiences,” said Alister Dias, Vice President at Google Cloud in Australia and New Zealand.

Despite Google facing several concerns in Australia due to its use of data, companies are still optimistic about partnering with Google Cloud. For them, the flexibilities and efficiencies enabled by a public cloud allow them to run and test new applications without risking any regulations.

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