Reduced internal process handling times through automation
Increased forecasting accuracy and improved inventory management
Enhanced customer experience with an optimized purchasing journey
Strengthened commercial performance with a decrease in shopping cart abandonment
Accelerated innovation capability through AI and centralized data
Blackcircles, a specialist in online tire sales, leveraged Google Cloud's technologies to optimize its data infrastructure and integrate AI to improve customer experience and internal operations.
Blackcircles, a specialist in online tire sales, leveraged Google Cloud's technologies to optimize its data infrastructure and integrate AI to improve customer experience and internal operations.
Google Cloud at the heart of Blackcircles' digital transformation
A subsidiary of Michelin since 2015, Blackcircles established itself as the undisputed leader in online tire sales in the United Kingdom before progressively conquering the international stage. Founded in 2001 in Edinburgh, where it established its headquarters, the company has gradually expanded internationally, notably in Canada, Egypt and Italy. This global expansion is intensifying to bring its innovative model to a growing number of markets across the globe.
In a sector traditionally complex for consumers, Blackcircles has made it its mission to offer its customers the best possible experience by radically simplifying tire purchases. The success of this approach is reflected in an impressive Net Promoter Score of 79, very close to its ambitious target of 80, demonstrating exceptional customer satisfaction in a sector often considered technical and unengaging.
Maintaining this level of excellence while pursuing ambitious growth plans requires a technology infrastructure to match. Over the years, Blackcircles has progressively strengthened its collaboration with Google to implement a robust data architecture that opens up new perspectives.
"Our long-standing collaboration with Google on advertising naturally led us to Google Cloud when we sought to centralize our data and harness the potential of AI," says Stephen Dewar, Marketing Director at Blackcircles.
This evolution stemmed from a concrete problem related to the profound changes in the landscape of user data tracking.
The evolution of privacy standards, GDPR, cookie blocking, all these factors made understanding customer behavior increasingly difficult. So, we decided to migrate our data to BigQuery while integrating server-side Google Tag Manager into our data architecture, a solution that allows us to effectively centralize our tracking while ensuring the protection of our users' data.
Stephen Dewar
Marketing Director at Blackcircles
"The evolution of privacy standards, GDPR, cookie blocking, all these factors made understanding customer behavior increasingly difficult," explains Stephen Dewar. "So, we decided to migrate our data to BigQuery while integrating server-side Google Tag Manager into our data architecture, a solution that allows us to effectively centralize our tracking while ensuring the protection of our users' data."
In practice, the data architecture implemented relies on Google BigQuery for real-time analysis of consumer behavior, Google Cloud Storage for secure and compliant storage, Google Cloud Run for the rapid deployment of new features, Vertex AI and Gemini models to power artificial intelligence projects, as well as Google Analytics 4 for a unified view of the customer journey.
"Previously, our data analysis was very manual: direct connections to Google Analytics, spreadsheets, and a lot of tedious work," explains Stephen Dewar. "The flexibility provided by BigQuery has clearly been a game-changer. In addition to its ability to process huge volumes of data, it allows us to easily cross-reference data. We can now combine our sales data with behavioral data, customer reviews, and even weather data, which is crucial in our sector where tire purchases are strongly influenced by weather conditions. We can also run complex queries in seconds where it previously took us much longer, create ultra-precise customer segmentations, feed our dashboards in real-time, or generate automated marketing reports and, more broadly, understand the customer journey from end to end."
Three major advancements driven by AI and data
This new way to approach data and AI has helped us achieve our goal of being able to capitalize on this centralized, reliable, and compliant data to fully enter the era of "AI." And that's precisely what Blackcircles did by giving birth to three innovative projects.
Previously, our data analysis was very manual: direct connections to Google Analytics, spreadsheets, and a lot of tedious work. The flexibility provided by BigQuery has clearly been a game-changer. In addition to its ability to process huge volumes of data, it allows us to easily cross-reference data.
Stephen Dewar
Marketing Director at Blackcircles
Named Navigator, the first project relies on Vertex Search for Retail, a turnkey AI solution designed to significantly improve search functionalities on ecommerce sites. "We have thus replaced a costly system with a more efficient and less expensive solution that understands customer intentions and refines results based on their immediate search needs," says Stephen Dewar. Very successful, this evolution has reduced infrastructure costs and improved the customer experience, all while collecting valuable data on consumer search habits that continually fuels a cycle of learning and improvement for the company.
Focused on day-to-day internal processes, the second project, Nexus, leverages the potential of Vertex AI and Gemini models. "We didn't just want to give everyone in the company the keys to the kingdom, but rather create an environment where employees can learn to use AI in a structured way.
That's why we set up a centralized hub that offers ready-to-use modules to improve the efficiency of our employees on a daily basis," says Stephen Dewar. Nexus already includes about twenty AI-driven modules, including a legal contract analysis system that has reduced processing times substantially, written communication personalization tools, and structured project plan generators. "In total, Nexus has already allowed us to free up time spent on low-value-added tasks so we can focus on driving growth."
Finally, TyreMate, developed with Google Dialogflow CX and has recently gone live on the UK website, represents the third project born from this modernized data infrastructure, leveraging the power of AI on reliable and centralized data. "We work in the tire sector and we know that it is not the easiest product to buy. Our mission is to offer our customers the best possible experience and to give them a better way forward," recalls the Marketing Director. "So, we have designed an intelligent virtual assistant that guides customers throughout the purchasing process with personalized recommendations based on the vehicle, driving style, and budget. It also offers instant answers to complex technical questions and simplifies order tracking and provides customers with a friendly and supportive companion as they shop online."
Cultivating innovation and skills to go further
In order to maximize the impact of this transformation and continue to capitalize on its data infrastructure, Blackcircles has also subscribed to the Google Cloud Skills Boost program to help its teams acquire advanced AI skills and generate new ideas.
"Our ambition is to create a true culture of innovation at all levels of the company. By the end of 2025, we plan to transform Nexus into a self-service internal platform that will allow each employee to create their own tools. We are also exploring solutions like Notebooks LM to transform our complex content into podcasts accessible to all. Ultimately, Google Cloud solutions have allowed us to move from a reactive approach to a proactive approach in all our processes, fundamentally transforming our relationship with customers and our partners," concludes Stephen Dewar.
Our ambition is to create a true culture of innovation at all levels of the company. Ultimately, Google Cloud solutions have allowed us to move from a reactive approach to a proactive approach in all our processes, fundamentally transforming our relationship with customers and our partners.
Stephen Dewar
Marketing Director at Blackcircles
Founded in 2001 in Edinburgh, Blackcircles is a leader in online tire sales. With over 2,200 partner garages in the UK, the company simplifies tire purchase and installation with renowned customer service. Building on its success, it continues its international expansion, notably in Canada, Egypt, and South Africa, adapting its innovative model to local specificities.
Industry: Automotive
Location: Scotland – United Kingdom
Products: BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Cloud Run, Vertex AI and Gemini models, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) (by Cloud Run for server-side tagging), Google Tag Manager (server-side), Vertex Search for commerce, Dialogflow CX
