Oda leverages Looker to democratize data, driving efficiency from the C-suite to warehouse operations.
Oda leverages Looker to democratize data, driving efficiency from the C-suite to warehouse operations.
Modernizing grocery delivery with a
lean, data-driven foundation
Oda, Norway’s leading online grocery company, manages the complex journey of food from the digital storefront to the customer’s doorstep. A period of rapid hyperscale during the COVID-19 pandemic required an efficient data strategy that could support a massive operation with a centralized, high impact team. The challenge was clear: Oda needed to maintain full control over its entire software stack, from shop applications and web front end to warehouse management systems and delivery logistics, all while ensuring that data remained accessible and actionable for every employee.
Their selection process led to a powerful combination of Fivetran for ingestion, Snowflake for warehousing, and Looker as the primary business intelligence and analytics interface. This architecture, established more than five years ago, has become the backbone of Oda's decision-making. By selecting Looker, Oda moved toward a model where data isn't just a byproduct of operations, but the primary driver of growth and operational excellence. The platform’s ability to handle complex data models through LookML while providing a user-friendly interface made it the ideal choice for an organization that values both technical depth and broad accessibility.
Today, a lean team of four data engineers supports dozens of data analysts and scientists embedded in product teams, ensuring that the entire company speaks the same language when it comes to performance. The transition to Looker allowed Oda to centralize its logic, reducing discrepancies and empowering teams to move faster with confidence in their metrics.
The latest thing we actually started using was aggregate awareness, which was a really big improvement for us in terms of performance for our users, which was very, very cool. The transparent way that operates doesn’t depend on what people are filtering or searching on, but just works.
Fredrik Vraalsen
Head of Data Platform, Oda
Empowering every layer of the org
with real-time analytics
Today, Looker is deeply integrated in Oda’s daily rhythm, serving hundreds of weekly active users. The platform’s versatility is on full display as it supports a wide spectrum of needs across the business. The C-suite utilizes Looker to track core KPIs, including revenue and order volume, through high-level dashboards maintained by data analysts. Meanwhile, in the warehouses, managers and operators use Looker to plan the week, monitor daily throughput, and prepare for critical meetings. Oda's full-stack data analysts leverage dbt for transformations and build the semantic layer in Looker to ensure a unified language across the business.
Oda has pushed the boundaries of Looker’s extensibility by utilizing the Looker API to solve unique administrative pain points. For example, the team developed a custom Slack bot that allows engineers to re-enable dormant users or adjust access levels directly within Slack, bypassing the admin UI and maintaining developer flow. They also implemented automated scripts to clean up inactive dashboards and manage license costs by downgrading users who no longer require Explorer access.
Performance optimization has been another key win. By implementing Looker's aggregate awareness, Oda achieved noticeable performance improvements for end users. To maximize the efficiency of this feature, the engineering team wrote custom scripts to analyze field usage history, ensuring they built aggregate tables that delivered the most value for the effort. This proactive approach to platform management allows Oda to maintain a high-performance environment that scales with the company's needs without bloating the administrative overhead or infrastructure costs.
Looker has become a success for us because we have one place to go for most of our data needs, from building dashboards to ad hoc analysis.
Fredrik Vraalsen
Head of Data Platform, Oda
Coding the future of BI with AI and
community innovation
As Oda looks toward the future, it is embracing the intersection of AI and data modeling to further democratize access. The team is exploring conversational analytics to allow non-technical users to query data using natural language, and Oda's developers are leading the charge in "vibe coding" and tool creation to improve the developer experience. One data engineer independently developed a Visual Studio Code extension for LookML to enable refactoring, syntax highlighting, and error checking, significantly increasing the productivity of their data modeling workflow. The team is also tackling the challenge of duplicate work by developing AI-driven skills that automatically reflect changes in dbt models directly into the LookML layer.
This focus on automation and developer experience ensures that Oda remains at the cutting edge of the BI space. By collaborating with Google Cloud’s product teams and participating in customer councils, Oda continues to influence the roadmap for Looker. This partnership ensures that as the grocery industry evolves, Oda’s data capabilities will continue to scale alongside it. The goal is to reach a level of self-service where even teams without embedded analysts can build their own dashboards and extract insights with ease. By training users on Explorers and leveraging modern AI features, Oda is transforming its data platform from a reporting tool into a proactive engine for innovation. This journey reflects Oda’s commitment to staying lean while maintaining a competitive edge in the Nordic grocery market.
We don't have any changes in our data models these days that haven't been touched by AI in some form or another.
Fredrik Vraalsen
Head of Data Platform, Oda
Oda is Norway’s leading online grocery retailer, delivering high-quality products and seamless shopping experiences directly to customers' doors.
Industry: Retail
Location: Norway
Products: Looker, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform
