Home Depot has been using the Google Cloud Platform for its online marketplace since 2016 and now it has extended that deal. The extension of Google’s deal means that the majority of Home Depot’s online customers will be able to use its store for online shopping.
Home Depot extended its agreement with Google Cloud to provide the businesses with managed Google Cloud Platform services. The deal, which covers five years, was signed in April last year and the companies agreed to extend it for another five years.
Home Depot Inc. is planning to extend a cloud deal with Google Inc. to streamline its services, the home improvement chain said on Thursday. The Home Depot Inc. cloud services are being extended from Google to Home Depot in order to provide its customers with better service, the retailer said in a statement.. Read more about home depot google cloud and let us know what you think.
At the height of the Covid-19 epidemic, Home Depot Inc. was doubling down on cloud computing as it looked to extend the variety of digital tools that helped it capture rocketing demand from both do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors.
The home improvement retailer said on Wednesday that it intends to renew its multiyear cloud-services agreement with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Cloud, which predates the epidemic. The terms of the deal were not revealed.
Home Depot’s chief information officer, Matt Carey, said that moving deeper into the cloud will allow the company to improve existing digital services while also enabling the development of new ones, such as a recently launched tool that generates more accurate cost estimates for kitchen renovation projects.
He went on to say that cloud computing has become critical for extracting customer insights from sales, website traffic, and other data sources, as well as reacting to quickly changing market trends.
This year, Home Depot has already launched a number of new cloud-based services, all of which are powered by Google Cloud. One of these is a heavy equipment rental system that can be accessed through a mobile app and allows professional and retail consumers to check the availability of trailers, backhoes, and excavators at local shops and reserve them ahead of time. Equipment rentals were formerly done in shops or over the phone.
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Other new features include the use of artificial intelligence and natural-language recognition software to enable voice-activated product searches, which may detect groupings of goods that are often required for particular tasks.
The business is utilizing AI-enabled software to anticipate inventory shortages and identify items that need to be replenished before they run out on the operational side. By monitoring and analyzing greater quantities of logistical data, smart software is also being utilized to keep a closer eye on supply chains.
Mr. Carey said, “Right now, we are in hurricane season, and we have a lot of models actively monitoring meteorological activity and inventory.” “Our replenishment teams can rapidly determine where we can redirect those kinds of goods to regions in higher need,” he added, as demand for chain saws and generators increases in certain locations.
Homebound consumers with additional money, government stimulus checks, and time on their hands contemplating a kitchen or bathroom renovation drove these and other digital initiatives into overdrive last year, when the firm saw its online and mobile app sales jump 86 percent.
Before the epidemic, the Atlanta-based business had started migrating its information-technology systems and customer-service software to the cloud—and away from its own data centers. It now hosts its website and runs a structured corporate data warehouse on Google Cloud. It uses other cloud providers for a variety of different services, including as “data lakes,” or massive data stores.
Home Depot’s chief information officer, Matt Carey.
Photo courtesy of Home Depot Inc.
Home Depot has been able to manage sudden increases in web traffic because to the company’s continued move to the cloud, which has given near unlimited computer capacity and power, according to Mr. Carey. More flexible and resilient cloud platforms, he added, aided IT teams in rapidly developing applications that met coronavirus safety standards and store limitations, such as curbside pickups.
“We were reacting to over 600 municipal laws throughout the nation at any one time during the pandemic,” Mr. Carey said. “Our infrastructure was critical in allowing us to remain nimble.”
Home Depot saw its best quarterly sales increase in almost 20 years in August of last year, when Covid-19 cases were hitting new highs, with May-through-July revenue up 23 percent to $38.1 billion, compared to the same time in 2019.
As the economy reopens in 2021, the frantic pace has maintained. The firm reported $37.5 billion in revenues for the quarter ended May 2, up 33% from the same time last year, while earnings almost quadrupled to $4.15 billion.
The number of customer transactions at Home Depot increased to 447.2 million in the third quarter, up from 374.8 million a year ago, according to the business.
Photo courtesy of Akio Kon/Bloomberg News.
The epidemic, according to Carrie Tharp, vice president of Google Cloud’s retail and consumer business, accelerated the move to e-commerce and omnichannel services, which include everything from websites and online shops to mobile applications, emails, and texts.
Ms. Tharp said, “Customer demands are greater than ever.” “Customers demand customized, frictionless online experiences as well as innovative contactless methods to make in-store purchases.” According to Google’s own statistics, almost half of customers plan to buy both in shops and online, which is more than twice the pre-pandemic norm, according to Ms. Tharp.
According to global market research firm Euromonitor International and the National Retail Federation, a trade organization, 58 percent of approximately 450 retail sector experts worldwide said the pandemic hastened the implementation of technology-related services at their business in a March poll. Over 70% stated they have raised their digital technology expenditure.
Angus Loten can be reached at [email protected].
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