Reduce query time for data from minutes to seconds
Reduce null customer searches from 5% to almost 0
Drive 2.6% increase in revenue
THE ICONIC is changing the future of online shopping by leveraging AI to create a seamless and inspiring search and discovery experience.
THE ICONIC is changing the future of online shopping by leveraging AI to create a seamless and inspiring search and discovery experience.
As Australia and New Zealand's leading fashion and lifestyle platform, THE ICONIC understands how customers shop online. It is this knowledge that drives the team to redefine the idea of ecommerce, by constantly finding new ways to bridge the gap between online and physical retail while delivering a level of convenience and ease that is hard to surpass.
However, this is easier said than done with growing inventories and an evolving market preference. Existing models adopted by the company began to have issues due to the growing size of the data accrued. Precious resources were being taken away from solving actual business problems as increased query times and the need to connect data across separate sources added unnecessary friction to the processes.
Our existing solutions just weren't keeping up with the volume of data that we had. That was the catalyst for us to start looking for new platforms, and explore new ways of working.
Glynn Willis
Director of Data and Analytics, THE ICONIC
Having outgrown its existing data platform, THE ICONIC needed to change up its operations and adopt new practices.
"Our existing solutions just weren't keeping up with the volume of data that we had. That was the catalyst for us to start looking for new platforms, and explore new ways of working," says Glynn Willis, Director of Data and Analytics at THE ICONIC.
Having worked with Google in other areas, the team settled quickly on Google Cloud and its suite of cloud computing capabilities. Products like BigQuery and Vertex AI equipped the company with varied and effective ways of managing its data and making full use of the information to drive both existing and new businesses. The ability to have all of its data centralized and integrated with Google Analytics together with its advertising platforms also made the decision an easy one for the company.
Seamless integration across products for more efficient workflow
The integration of Google Workspace with BigQuery allows us to connect Sheets directly to the data and get real-time answers. If you want to know what the conversion rate is last hour, you can now do that on Sheets.
Glynn Willis
Director of Data and Analytics, THE ICONIC
Working with Google Partner Intelia, THE ICONIC accelerated its migration to Google Cloud, building on strong foundations that helped to pave the way for new systems and innovations.
Data records related to customers, products, transactions, and more are processed in the tens of millions daily. BigQuery offers a unified workspace that efficiently manages all these data types while ensuring strict governance. As a result, quicker analysis helps inform business decisions, while users can query both owned and shared data in real time, even in large amounts, cutting down waiting time from minutes to seconds. The revamped architecture also makes it possible to stream data concurrently, giving THE ICONIC the ability to take action based on real-time data.
"The integration of Google Workspace with BigQuery allows us to connect Sheets directly to the data and get real-time answers. If you want to know what the conversion rate is last hour, you can now do that on Sheets," Willis noted.
Customer-first approach
Implementing Vertex AI and machine learning solutions further speeds up existing processes that deliver an enhanced shopping experience to the two million active customers who shop THE ICONIC. Multimodal search (MMS) is a standout feature that has seen search and discovery transformed. Instead of putting the onus on customers to seek out inspiration and discover more of what they could potentially want, the system can recommend items based on themes or intent.
For example, customers can now search according to events like a beach-themed party and receive a list of relevant item recommendations. Additionally, when customers search for a brand that is not stocked on THE ICONIC, instead of being returned zero results, they are now served with similar products and trending items, significantly increasing the chance of connecting shoppers with their desired products and products that inspire them.
THE ICONIC is also using MMS to enhance its Snap-to-Shop feature, which looks at images and breaks the content into individual pieces that customers can browse. The team also taps into Gemini to help with AI metadata tagging, which extracts data from images and adds tags. This helps expand customers' searches further and homes in on more obscure terms much more effectively.
"Enhancing search and discovery with MMS is one of the ways we are differentiating ourselves from other ecommerce sites. People do a lot of browsing, and they want to be inspired by what they see. We are providing that additional ability to show them what they want," says Willis.
"We have over 20 million monthly visits to our website and app from two million active customers. These AI-driven capabilities mark a major step forward in how we connect every single one of these customers to the products and styles that best suit them from our ever-expanding assortment, ultimately improving customer satisfaction and bottom-line results."
Moving forward, the team continues to explore more uses for AI, with recommendation engines and enhanced imagery at the forefront. The core objective remains the same, which is to remove friction for customers and create a better way to shop.
THE ICONIC is Australia and New Zealand's leading fashion and lifestyle platform. It is on a mission to create a better way for people to shop.
Industry: Retail & Consumer
Location: Australia
Products: BigQuery, Cloud Composer, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Dataflow, Cloud Storage, Compute Engine, Vertex AI
About Google Cloud partner- Intelia
Intelia is an Australian-owned data consultancy that connects brands to data to drive understanding, develop leading insights, and apply intelligent automation to transform businesses.
