Snowflake announced an extension of its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS), to improve demand forecasting and delivery for the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. This latest development will offer customers the ability to receive Amazon purchase order (PO) data and leverage product demand forecast data generated by Amazon Forecast within Snowflake’s Retail Data Cloud.
Retail and CPG businesses that sell on Amazon.com need to accurately forecast and anticipate variances of demand for their products, while also planning for manufacturing and delivery lead times to Amazon fulfillment centers.
Snowflake’s Retail Data Cloud, which unites Snowflake’s data platform, Snowflake- and partner-delivered solutions, and industry-specific datasets, breaks down data silos across the retail industry. With this announcement, retail brands and CPGs that sell on Amazon will now be able to receive their Amazon PO data natively in Snowflake, leverage brand-level and fulfillment center-level forecasts, and access new data from third-party data providers within the Retail Data Cloud, all on Snowflake’s single, integrated platform. The AWS and Snowflake relationship will empower retail businesses to process, analyze, act on, and syndicate data from a multitude of sources without the delays of traditional methods which require copying and moving data.
The Snowflake and AWS offering will enable retail and CPG customers to:
- Import Amazon purchase order data: More easily import Amazon PO data into Snowflake to better access, govern, and share data seamlessly across the organization.
- Increase forecast accuracy: Improve forecast accuracy using machine learning models from Amazon Forecast to create accurate time-series forecasts to predict demand for variable vendor purchase orders weeks ahead of time.
- Track product change impacts: Track product weight or dimension changes to ensure they adhere to manufacturer standards.
- Reduce OTIF penalties: Improve on-time in-full (OTIF) metrics to enhance organic ranking on Amazon.com, reduce chargeback expenses, and help ensure products are in-stock for consumers to buy.
- Ensure high velocity SKUs in stock: Match correct probabilistic forecasts with SKU sales velocity to help ensure key products will stay in stock and improve revenue.
“Today’s retail and CPG businesses are looking for accurate, efficient, and timely technology solutions to help deliver on their promises to consumers and positively impact their bottom lines,” said Rosemary Hua, Global Head of Retail & CPG at Snowflake. “Amazon.com has revolutionized how retail and CPG businesses sell and deliver to consumers and, similarly, Snowflake has had a profound impact on empowering businesses to optimize their operations and seamlessly collaborate on data. Together, Snowflake and AWS can streamline data-driven inventory management for items sold on Amazon.”
