By migrating to Google Cloud, e5 is increasing compute capacity, reducing costs, democratizing data access, improving uptime, and automating IT functions, to become a wholly cloud-based, data-driven company primed for the introduction of AI-driven tools and personalized experiences for staff and customers.
By migrating to Google Cloud, e5 is increasing compute capacity, reducing costs, democratizing data access, improving uptime, and automating IT functions, to become a wholly cloud-based, data-driven company primed for the introduction of AI-driven tools and personalized experiences for staff and customers.
Building a cloud-based infrastructure
for democratized data access
We turned to Google for technology that would enable any member of our team to leverage customer data without turning to our IT team for help.
Frederik Wybo
CIO, e5
Shopping for a classic knitted polo shirt in cerulean blue to wear to the beach? A midi dress with an eye-catching khaki jungle print? Or perhaps a four-color, checkerboard scarf — the perfect holiday gift for a special someone. You can find them — and all manner of menswear, womenswear, and accessories — at any one of e5's 58 stores across Belgium.
"Our goal at e5 is to provide our customers with an enjoyable, personalized shopping experience from the first time they see an ad to the moment they leave the store with their purchases," says Frederik Wybo, CIO of the 45-year-old retailer.
Behind that kind of customer experience is a massive amount of data that informs everything from which styles are trending and how many of each to produce to ensuring the right clothes are in the right stores at the right time, and that they're priced competitively and profitably.
"Everyone from our sourcers, buyers, and designers to our warehouse and store managers to our sales and marketing teams need that data to make sound business decisions that will help e5 continue to grow," Wybo explains, "and we want to enable even non-technical members of the e5 team to leverage data themselves without having to turn to the IT team for help."
So Wybo turned to Google for the technology needed to realize the company's goal of a wholly cloud-based technology infrastructure that would help democratize access to the company's data and leverage it to drive ambitious revenue goals.
A long-term technology partner
that understands clothing retail
Although e5 was already a BigQuery customer, the database was linked to legacy on-prem systems that were neither flexible, powerful enough, nor cost-effective. "We were using only a few standard BigQuery dashboards that measured KPIs for sales and merchandising and using batch-processed rather than real-time data," Wybo recounts. "In addition, at peak usage times, we needed computing power for our applications and platforms beyond what our data center could provide, and at other times, the systems were nearly idle."
After assessing other cloud solutions, Wybo chose Google Cloud.
Finding the right technology partner is in many ways like a marriage, and Google was the only cloud provider that felt like a lifelong partner.
Frederik Wybo
CIO, e5
"Finding the right company to entrust with the technical foundation of your business is in many ways like a marriage, and Google was the only company that felt like a lifelong partner, not just a vendor," he explains. "The team from Google came to our offices, listened to our technology challenges and our vision for the company, and laid out exciting solutions."
He also discovered that Google and e5 were in sync in their commitment to sustainability — an important issue in the clothing industry — and that the security features built into Google Cloud met e5's strict requirements for compliance with data privacy laws and protection of customer and company data.
Centralizing data in BigQuery
improves decision-making
Google Kubernetes Engine provides us with rolling updates and out-of-the-box availability ideal for the dynamic demands of retail. And with Google Cloud's automated scaling, we only pay for usage because compute power scales up and down dynamically.
Frederik Wybo
CIO, e5
To reduce overhead, e5 is migrating from machines in a data center to Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). This will provide a fully managed environment that integrates seamlessly with e5's broader Google Cloud ecosystem. "GKE provides us with rolling updates so applications remain available continuously, which is essential for the dynamic demands of retail," Wybo notes. "And with Google Cloud's automated scaling, we only pay for usage because compute power scales up and down dynamically."
Wybo has also expanded BigQuery's use at e5. It now functions as a centralized enterprise data platform for customer, product, and business data: a "data lake" that provides a 360-degree view of each customer, which is key to retail sales and marketing efforts. It's also a repository for the data from platforms that manage operations, ordering, inventory, pricing, and product information.
"BigQuery is now our single source of truth, enabling us to search large datasets quickly and cost-effectively," Wybo relates, "and because the Looker interface is easy to use and customize, all staff can perform the kind of granular analysis they need for data-driven decision-making."
Those decisions include predictions about seasonal product demand so they can align production volume to projected sales, reducing excess stock and optimizing stock levels store by store, and optimizing pricing and markdowns.
Freedom from manual and
ad hoc data transformation
To populate BigQuery, e5 uses Cloud Run to ingest data from other platforms using API calls and Dataform to normalize, cleanse, and structure that data. "Previously, much of our data transformation was handled manually or via ad hoc SQL scripts," Wybo acknowledges. "Dataform reformats and optimizes raw data easily using SQL-based automated transformations, so BigQuery interfaces cleanly with the source platforms, which improves data consistency and traceability across the company."
Wybo is now planning to leverage Google Cloud's support for streaming ingestion to capture customer data from across all their sales and marketing channels in near real time.
Previously, much of our data transformation was handled manually or via ad hoc SQL scripts, but Dataform reformats and optimizes raw data easily using SQL-based automated transformations.
Frederik Wybo
CIO, e5
This will enable the e5 team to understand customer behavior and purchasing decisions sooner and allow for real-time personalization of marketing messaging, advertising, and promotions that they can push out to their marketing channels — key to meeting the expectations of retail customers.
In addition, Elastic on Google Cloud provides fast, full-text search capabilities across e5's product catalog and CRM systems. Importantly, it powers in-store customer lookup: Interfacing with e5's master customer relationship management platform, sales associates can find customers by name, email, or phone number, accelerating the checkout process and improving in-store experience.
A complex yet smooth migration
and a future-proof platform
Rather than 'lift and shift' legacy systems, Google Cloud Partner Devoteam rearchitected applications and dataflows to take advantage of Google Cloud managed services and automation, a clean-slate strategy that minimized technical debt and future-proofed the platform.
Jordy Heusdens
Lead Data Architect, Devoteam
For strategic guidance on cloud architecture and migration planning, Wybo turned to Google Cloud Partner Devoteam, which staged a cloud-first phased migration that began with the foundational infrastructure: networking, identity, and security. They then moved on to migrating data platforms and applications, prioritizing those that benefit most from cloud scalability and reliability, including BigQuery, enterprise resource planning, and retail management systems. They maintained parallel systems throughout to minimize disruption to daily operations.
"Rather than 'lift and shift' legacy systems, we rearchitected applications and dataflows to take full advantage of Google Cloud managed services and automation," explains Jordy Heusdens, lead data architect at Devoteam. "This clean-slate strategy is allowing e5 to avoid technical debt and future-proof the platform."
Devoteam also helped e5 set up the glossaries needed to pilot conversational analytics, a new technology which, when fully functional, will enable BigQuery to accept natural-language queries.
Building a cloud-first, data-driven,
AI-infused culture
Wybo reports that the migration to Google Cloud, while still relatively new, has already improved the agility of his IT team. "Streamlining our IT operations has allowed us to build and deploy new applications faster, and automate manual operations, giving us more time to focus on strategic initiatives," he reports. "We're also seeing improvements in uptime, elasticity, and cost control as we migrate to Cloud-based systems."
In addition, BigQuery has paved the way for a corporate culture rooted in data-driven decision-making. "Centralizing data in BigQuery is a monumental shift from relying on siloed spreadsheets and transferring data between platforms," observes Wybo. "It's taking e5 a long way toward its goal of being a data-driven, cloud-native company, and will be essential to any future AI- and ML-related projects."
Google is helping us create a whole new world where technology is accessible, easier to use, and creates real business value, and its AI and cloud-based technologies will make it possible to make our ambitions a reality.
Frederik Wybo
CIO, e5
e5 already uses Gemini to generate SEO-optimized, channel specific copy from product photos and attributes to accelerate copywriting. Future projects include introducing generative and agentic artificial intelligence into data-driven decisions for propensity modeling and return-rate prediction. And Wybo envisions an AI-driven shopping experience that understands customers' brand, size, and style preferences and substitutes queries for browsing on the e5 website.
"Google is helping us create a whole new world where technology is accessible, easier to use, and creates real business value for e5," Wybo concludes, "and Google's AI and cloud-based technologies will make it possible for e5 to make our ambitions a reality."
e5 has been a Belgian fashion institution for 45 years. Its 58 stores are stocked with beautiful, comfortable, stylish clothing for men and women, and provide personalized, delightful shopping experiences.
Industry: Retail
Location: Belgium
Products: Google Cloud, BigQuery, Cloud GPUs, Cloud Run, Dataform, Elastic on Google Cloud, Gemini, Google Kubernetes Engine, Looker
About Google Cloud Partner - Devoteam
With 11,000 team members in 25+ countries, Devoteam has been a trusted technology advisor for 30 years, guiding companies through an ever-changing tech landscape toward an AI-powered future.
