At the center of this transformation is a shift in how ISVs, resellers, and enterprises interact. Google’s latest enhancements to its Marketplace—announced by Dai Vu, Managing Director of Google Cloud Marketplace and ISV GTM Initiatives—highlight three major changes: a new variable revenue share model for partners, streamlined commit drawdown through channel partners, and a customer incentive program to drive new workload adoption.

One of the most transformative changes is Google Cloud’s shift to a variable revenue share model. Rather than a flat cut, the Marketplace now adjusts fees based on the nature of the deal. For example, large private offers of $10M or more now incur only a 1.5% revenue share, allowing partners to retain 98.5% of total contract value. Even smaller deals—under $1M—are charged just 3%, which still significantly undercuts many competing platforms.

This move is already resonating with partners. Shaun Clowes, CPO at Confluent, noted that the update better aligns with their growth strategy and helps monetize demand more effectively across deal sizes. The economic flexibility empowers ISVs to scale across a wide range of customer segments while maintaining profitability.

For enterprise buyers locked into cloud commitments, being able to draw down those commitments against software purchases is a major purchasing incentive. Google Cloud has now made that simpler. As of June 9, 2025, qualifying Marketplace purchases made via Channel Private Offers (MCPOs) will result in 100% commit drawdown tied to the final negotiated price.

This policy makes Google Cloud’s Marketplace a more strategic procurement path—not only for customers with cloud minimums to meet but also for the channel partners who can now maintain the customer relationship, recognize topline revenue, and offer tailored services.

Momentum is clear. Between 2023 and 2024, the value of third-party software resold through Google Cloud Marketplace’s channel partners grew by 170%, proving that this model is gaining traction across the ecosystem.

With the general availability of the Marketplace Customer Credit Program (MCCP), Google Cloud is giving customers another reason to explore the Marketplace. This program offers up to 3% in Google Cloud credits for eligible first-time software purchases, which can then be applied toward Google Cloud’s own services. It’s a clever incentive: customers benefit from cost offsets, partners win new business faster, and Google secures deeper cloud engagement.

This is particularly significant in the AI space, where customers often need to test and deploy new agents in low-friction, cost-effective ways. Google Cloud’s new AI Agent Marketplace—an emerging category within the Marketplace—provides an open door to experiment with enterprise-ready AI solutions backed by infrastructure-grade support.

What this means for ERP Insiders

Enterprise ERP buyers should rethink marketplace strategy. For Oracle Fusion customers navigating multi-cloud and hybrid environments, Google Cloud Marketplace offers a compelling opportunity to centralize ISV procurement. The ability to draw down Google Cloud commitments while purchasing pre-integrated ERP tools or AI extensions through the Marketplace allows IT and procurement teams to improve budget utilization and reduce friction. For ERP programs that rely on third-party planning, automation, or analytics tools, leveraging this model can streamline sourcing and integration.

ERP vendors must embrace the economics of scale. For ERP-adjacent ISVs, Google’s variable revenue share model represents a powerful growth lever. By retaining up to 98.5% of revenue on high-value deals and still benefiting from the discoverability of a global cloud Marketplace, solution providers can reinvest in innovation, customer support, and AI capabilities that enhance Oracle Fusion environments. Vendors that optimize Marketplace strategy will gain a competitive edge in cost and reach.

AI adoption in ERP requires accessible channels. As AI agents begin augmenting finance, HR, and supply chain processes, ERP leaders must create safe, scalable paths to experimentation. Google Cloud’s AI Agent Marketplace—combined with MCCP credits—offers a low-risk entry point for Oracle customers seeking to evaluate AI copilots or autonomous agents. This infrastructure enables test-and-learn strategies that won’t disrupt core ERP systems while accelerating innovation at the edges.

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Shopee holds 48 percent of the e-commerce market share in Southeast Asia, making the integration a significant opportunity for businesses. Odoo’s centralized platform lets Shopee sellers manage multiple stores across various regions from one interface, reducing the complexities of handling data from multiple platforms.

The Shopee Connector ensures real-time inventory synchronization by capturing Shopee orders instantly and updating inventory status at regular intervals. The feature aims to improve efficiency in both sales and inventory management, enabling businesses to maintain accurate and up-to-date order statuses across systems.

Retailers are expected to streamline order-to-delivery management with features like one-click access to Shopee shipping labels and tracking numbers. The integration also supports the FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) delivery method, allowing businesses to handle shipments from Shopee alongside orders from other sales channels.

With advanced reporting tools, the Shopee Connector empowers retailers to analyze sales performance, optimize inventory and pricing strategies, and make informed marketing decisions. 

Matts Fievez, director of Odoo APAC, emphasized the company’s commitment to supporting business growth in the region:

“At Odoo, our mission remains to provide truly user-friendly and affordable tools to help our customers scale their businesses.

I am sure this will greatly advance our customers in Asia to expand their scope and lead in retail and their respective industries.”

As Odoo kicks off the new year, the company is preparing webinars, events and business shows to showcase its latest technologies. 

What it means for ERP insiders

Revolutionizing daily operations for Shopee sellers: For Shopee sellers, inventory managers and e-commerce strategists, Odoo’s new Shopee Connector promises to transform the way of work. By enabling seamless synchronization of Shopee orders and inventory through Odoo’s ERP platform, this integration can eliminate the headache of manual data entry and fragmented workflows. Imagine spending less time toggling between systems and more time optimizing your operations with real-time insights into sales and inventory. Whether for small business owners expanding into new markets or inventory managers striving for operational efficiency, this tool promises to simplify day-to-day tasks while supporting scalability in the competitive APAC e-commerce market.

Riding the wave of e-commerce growth in Southeast Asia: The launch of the Shopee Connector aligns with the booming e-commerce market in Southeast Asia, a region where online retail is projected to reach $234bn by 2025, according to Google’s e-Conomy SEA report. With Shopee commanding nearly half of the e-commerce market share in the region, this integration offers businesses an advantage. Odoo’s move positions it against other ERP providers like SAP and Oracle NetSuite, which also offer omnichannel commerce solutions but often come with higher price points. 

Key evaluation criteria for ERP solutions in e-commerce: When selecting an ERP solution for e-commerce integration, businesses should prioritize usability, scalability and cost-effectiveness. A user-friendly interface, like Odoo’s, ensures that non-technical staff can quickly adapt to the platform. Scalability is essential as businesses expand across multiple regions and platforms, making seamless integrations a critical feature. Cost-effectiveness remains a major consideration, especially for SMEs operating in price-sensitive markets. Additionally, robust reporting and data analytics capabilities can offer invaluable insights for strategic decision-making. In a crowded ERP landscape, solutions like Odoo’s Shopee Connector stand out by addressing these priorities while empowering businesses to thrive in an increasingly digital marketplace.

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“At Wayfair, we believe gen AI is the key to unlocking the next generation of retail experiences,” said Fiona Tan, Chief Technology Officer at Wayfair. “With Google Cloud, we’ve been able to efficiently scale and enrich our product catalogs, enabling us to support a more seamless and engaging shopping experience for our customers.”

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, surfacing the right products at the right time is crucial. Wayfair is already seeing results from its use of Gemini on Google Cloud, which currently serves customers in more than 200 countries, including:

• Faster Time-to-Market: Instead of manually tagging each new product across its 30 million product portfolio, Wayfair is using Gemini on Google Cloud to automatically categorize products, reducing the time needed to curate new and update existing product listings by 67%.
• Significant Cost Savings: By removing the tedious process of manually tagging attributes like color and style, Wayfair estimates it will drive hundreds of thousands in cost savings per year.
• Better Listing Quality: Gemini’s ability to analyze images opened up new possibilities for Wayfair, such as automatically catching errors in product dimensions listed in the catalog, leading to better customer satisfaction.
• Improved Customer Experience: Increasing the accuracy of product attributes like color and subject, and improving the coverage of these attribute tags in the catalog, improved conversion rates when customers use these filters by ~2%.
• More Responsible Content Management: With Gemini, Wayfair now has a scalable, AI-augmented process for identifying and flagging inappropriate materials.

In addition to catalog enrichment, Wayfair is also leveraging Gemini for Google Workspace, which boasts more than 3 billion users and over 10 million paying customers, to improve the productivity of employees and create better experiences for them. Wayfair has had success using Gemini in Gmail, Google Docs, and more to help employees streamline and collaborate on tasks like drafting and responding to emails, summarizing and proofreading documents, building presentation templates, and more. Wayfair is also finding success using Gems, which are customized versions of Gemini to help with tasks or get deep expertise in new areas. With Gemini for Workspace and Gems, Wayfair has seen a boost to employee productivity, enhanced collaboration, and improvements in creativity across the organization.

“Wayfair is redefining what’s possible in retail with Google Cloud’s generative AI,” said Matt Renner, President, Global Revenue at Google Cloud. “By harnessing the power of Gemini and Google Workspace, Wayfair is not only automating complex tasks and boosting employee collaboration, but also creating more personalized and engaging experiences for every shopper. This is a prime example of how AI can transform businesses and deliver tangible benefits to customers and employees.”

What this means for ERP Insiders

GenAI to become e-commerce standard by 2027. GenAI in online retail is accelerating, with projections indicating that by the end of this year, 2025, 84% of e-commerce businesses will have integrated AI into their operations. Retailers are utilizing GenAI to offer tailored product recommendations, virtual try-ons, and AI-informed suggestions, significantly improving customer engagement and satisfaction. AI tools are also automating the creation of product descriptions, marketing materials, and social media content, ensuring consistency and reducing manual workload. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are providing instant responses to customer inquiries, enhancing service efficiency and availability. Given the rapid advancements and the competitive advantages offered by GenAI, it is anticipated that by 2027, GenAI functionalities will become standard in e-commerce platforms worldwide. That said, some challenges loom, such as ensuring customer data is handled securely and in compliance with regulations is paramount. Building trust in AI-driven interactions requires transparency and consistent positive experiences. While AI implementation can be resource-intensive, the long-term benefits often justify the investment.

Integrate AI-enabled e-commerce platforms with ERP. Integrating AI-enabled e-commerce platforms with ERP systems is critical for online retailers to enhance automation, personalization, and operational efficiency. If available, use pre-built ERP connectors offered by platforms like Shopify, Magento, or BigCommerce. Use RESTful or GraphQL APIs to facilitate seamless communication between AI-enabled e-commerce platforms and ERP systems. And leverage integration platforms like MuleSoft, Zapier, Dell Boomi, or Celigo to simplify connectivity. Enable bidirectional data flow between ERP and e-commerce systems for inventory levels (avoid overselling and stockouts); product catalog updates (pricing, descriptions, AI-generated product recommendations); and customer orders (seamless order fulfillment and tracking). And implement webhooks or event-driven architecture to keep data up-to-date in real-time. Integrate AI chatbots (e.g., ChatGPT, Amazon Bedrock AI) with the ERP system to provide real-time order status, return processing, and support. Also, enable AI-powered product recommendations based on ERP-driven purchase history and real-time browsing behavior. And use AI to generate dynamic pricing by analyzing ERP-driven inventory levels and demand fluctuations.

Online retailers should prioritize deployment of GenAI functionalities based on ROI potential. Retailers like Wayfair would be well served to focus first on high priority, immediate ROI capabilities like AI-Powered Product Recommendations, AI Chatbots and Virtual Assistants, and AI-Generated Content and SEO Optimization. Next should be medium priority features that drive profit and cost efficiency like AI-Driven Dynamic Pricing, AI Fraud Detection, and AI Inventory and Supply Chain Optimization. Finally, retailers should look at lower priority features with longer-term payoffs, like AI-Powered Visual Search and Virtual Try-On. As an example, AI-powered product recommendations have an ROI potential of 10-30% increase in conversion rates, with a revenue impact of $3-$5 return per $1 invested. Amazon, the world’s second-largest retailer, currently attributes 35% of sales to AI-driven recommendations. AI-Driven Chatbots and Virtual Assistants have a potential ROI of 30-50% reduction in customer service costs and efficiency gains in the form of 24/7 automation of 60-80% of inquiries. And AI-Generated Product Descriptions and Content Creation have a potential ROI of 20-40% reduction in content creation costs and a 5-15% increase in organic online traffic.

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This news follows SAP’s recent announcement which saw the giant unveil the general availability of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business solution, with promising supply chain capabilities for retailers.

According to research from SAP Emarsys, five in six (83%) consumers in the UK feel undervalued by the brands they remain loyal to, with many questioning their loyalty altogether. SAP’s new solution aims to equip retailers with experiential journeys and personalized, real-time offers to help earn customer loyalty through integration with the SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Emarsys and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion and vertical business solutions. 

Key features of the new solution include: 

• Loyalty profiles that connect shoppers with a cloud-based wallet, facilitating targeted and personalized offers, entitlements and real-time basket analysis.
• Multi-brand loyalty management, as well as shared loyalty programs with partners that centralize loyalty programs across regions and markets, which enable combined brand programs for gaining market share. 
• A single place for omnichannel promotion planning with real-time redemption to deliver any type of offer, digital payment and gifting to all customers on any channel. 
• Loyalty journey planning that delivers experiential omnichannel journeys tailored to customer needs through personalized commerce, marketing, service and retail interactions. 
• Quantifiable metrics that track promotion performance and loyalty-related liabilities, linking to financial systems to measure ROI and enable settlements with the member and partner brands. 

In addition to this announcement, SAP has also announced the general availability of an AI shopping assistance in the first half of 2025. This AI assistance, delivered in conjunction with the SAP CX AI Toolkit, expands the existing AI capabilities of SAP Commerce Cloud, elevating the online shopping experience through natural language conversations that help customers find what they need. 

This news follows other retail announcements in the industry where Google Cloud announced a series of advancements that aim to utilize AI to help retailers transform businesses and enhance the customer experience. Following on from Google Cloud, Salesforce recently announced two AI-powered innovations for retailers: Agentforce for Retail and Retail Cloud with Modern POS, designed to drive sales and boost productivity, all while delivering a more personalized shopping experience. 

What does this mean for ERP insiders? 

This SAP announcement offers several key benefits to users, especially in the retail and consumer packaged goods sectors:

1. Enhanced Customer Loyalty: By providing tools for personalized, real-time offers and experiences, users can foster deeper customer loyalty and engagement. The integration with SAP solutions ensures that these offerings are aligned across multiple touchpoints and channels, strengthening the overall customer experience.
2. Streamlined Loyalty Management: The multi-brand and omnichannel loyalty management capabilities allow businesses to manage loyalty programs more effectively across regions and partners. This centralization simplifies the process and enhances operational efficiency, helping users maintain a unified strategy for customer retention.
3. Real-Time Data & Insights: The inclusion of real-time basket analysis, loyalty profile tracking, and promotion performance metrics allows users to quickly assess the effectiveness of their loyalty strategies. This data-driven approach helps optimize offers, promotions, and campaigns, directly impacting ROI and improving decision-making.
4. Omnichannel Flexibility: The solution allows users to deliver promotions, digital payments, and gifting seamlessly across various customer touchpoints, both online and offline. This flexibility ensures a smooth and consistent experience for customers, regardless of how they interact with the brand.
5. Comprehensive Integration: With integration across SAP’s ecosystem (Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, Emarsys, S/4HANA Cloud), users benefit from a holistic approach to customer engagement, enabling streamlined workflows and more accurate, personalized interactions with consumers.
6. AI Shopping Assistant: The upcoming AI shopping assistant will empower users to enhance the online shopping experience, offering customers a more intuitive and efficient way to find products through natural language queries. This feature helps increase customer satisfaction and drive higher conversion rates.

Overall, these innovations equip users with advanced tools to build more meaningful customer relationships, optimize loyalty programs, and enhance operational efficiency, ultimately leading to stronger business outcomes.

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Agentforce for Retail features a new library of pre-built agent skills which enables retailers to build AI agents that can automate time-consuming tasks, such as order management, appointment scheduling, and deploying shopper personalization at scale. 

The new library unlocks additional capacity allowing retailers to better serve their customers, reduce costs and increase shopper conversion. Some of these new skills include commerce skills for order management, commerce skills for guided shopping, field service skills for appointment scheduling, and marketing skills for loyalty promotion creation. 

Retail Cloud with Modern POS is a cloud-based system that brings online and offline shopping data together on a single platform, giving associates a single entry point to serve customers more efficiently with mobile POS, clientele tools, endless aisle, mixed cart and omnichannel fulfillment, inventory management and more. 

Salesforce’s cloud-based system brings online and offline shopping and inventory data together on a single, unified platform, giving retailers a tool to serve their customers more efficiently. New features include no-code CMS, inventory management, built-in AI powered by customer and inventory data, mixed cart and omni-channel fulfillment and more. 

Speaking on the two new AI innovations, Velia Carboni, CIO at SharkNinja and customer of Salesforce, said: “At SharkNinja, our team is driven by a passion for delivering high-performing technology to every consumer. Agentforce will help us scale this mission by handling routine shopper inquiries like “Where is my order” and enabling seamless self-service. This will allow our team members to focus on innovation and creating meaningful, high-impact interactions.”

Nitin Mangtani, SVP and GM, retail at Salesforce, said: “Together, AI-fueled digital labor and a modern POS can unlock a new scale of operational capacity for retailers. With these latest Agentforce skills for retail and a cloud-based, intuitive POS system, Salesforce is helping retailers deliver seamless, unified shopping experiences across both the physical and digital realms of retail that drive productivity advancements and business growth across their entire enterprise.”

What does this mean for ERP insiders? 

Salesforce’s new AI innovations offer users an enhanced shopping experience. Automated processes such as order management and appointment scheduling allow for quicker responses from retailers, while unified data enables seamless interactions between store associates. AI-driven personalization provides users with tailored product recommendations and loyalty promotions which boosts relevance and makes for a more seamless and convenient shopping experience. 

Key Highlights:

• Agentforce for Retail
  • Features a library of pre-built agent skills that automate time-consuming tasks like order management and appointment scheduling.
  • Enhances shopper personalization at scale through AI-driven solutions.
  • Includes new skills for guided shopping, loyalty promotion creation, and field service scheduling.
  • Increases operational capacity, reduces costs, and improves customer conversion rates.
• Retail Cloud with Modern POS
  • Combines online and offline shopping data on a unified, cloud-based platform.
  • Empowers associates with mobile POS, clientele tools, endless aisle, and omnichannel fulfillment capabilities.
  • Incorporates no-code CMS, built-in AI leveraging customer and inventory data, and robust inventory management.
  • Simplifies operations, enabling seamless and efficient customer interactions.

These innovations represent a shift toward AI-driven retail experiences, enabling ERP end-users to deliver unified and scalable shopping solutions across all touchpoints. The tools emphasize efficiency, customer personalization, and business growth, positioning Salesforce as a leader in modern retail technology.

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The report reveals that after Kyriba analyzed the earnings of 1,700 publicly traded companies in Europe and North America, it found that these firms dealt with a total of $21.55bn in currency impacts this quarter alone, split between $9.83bn in negative impacts (headwinds) and $2.72bn in positive impacts (tailwinds). This significant amount highlights the urgent need for effective currency risk management.

For companies operating globally, currency swings can mean big trouble. Sudden changes in exchange rates can cut into profits and make financial planning more burdensome. This report highlights why it’s crucial for businesses to have strong strategies in place to manage currency risk.

Kyriba provides key tools to address the currency challenges highlighted in this report. Specifically, its Currency Risk Management platform uses real-time data and predictive analytics to manage currency exposures.

“Currency volatility continues to pose a substantial risk to multinational corporations, significantly impacting their bottom lines,” said Melissa Di Donato, chair and CEO of Kyriba. “Our latest report underscores the heightened challenges companies faced in the first quarter of 2024. More importantly, it reinforces the critical need for strategic currency risk management and the use of advanced predictive analytics to mitigate these risks and optimize liquidity performance.”

Cash and Liquidity Management tools are important to help businesses forecast cash flows and maintain liquidity. Kyriba’s Treasury Management System integrates with existing financial systems for accurate data and better decision-making. These tools aim to allow companies navigate currency swings and strengthen financial resilience.

Among the key highlights in this report, North American companies saw a huge 219 percent jump in FX impact, totaling $8.38bn in the first quarter of 2024. Around 19 percent of North American multinationals reported currency impacts, especially in industries like healthcare equipment, machinery and life sciences tools and services. In contrast, European businesses reported $2.72bn in FX-related losses, which is 65.2 percent less than the previous quarter. Among the 850 Europe-based companies analyzed, 8.5 percent reported headwinds, with 36.1 percent quantifying their negative impacts. The construction and engineering sector was hit the hardest, followed by healthcare equipment and then auto components.

The report also pointed out that the US dollar was the most mentioned currency in European earnings calls, followed by the Swedish krona and the euro. The Turkish lira was noted as the most volatile currency while the euro was the most volatile when adjusted for GDP. These findings suggest that currency fluctuations continue to play a major role in financial outcomes for businesses across the globe.

Looking ahead, the trends in early 2024 suggest a strong US dollar, which could mean more challenges for US companies later this year.

“The early 2024 trends are showing an unexpected strength in the US dollar, thus forecasting a rise in FX headwinds for US corporations for the second half of 2024,” said Andy Gage, SVP of FX solutions and advisory at Kyriba. “Inflation, coupled with this strong dollar, is putting additional pressure on global economic stability, making it imperative for companies to employ robust risk management strategies.”

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The software is currently available in Denmark, France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States. However, the expansion beyond these countries aims to make procurement easier for clients, streamline purchasing and create new efficiencies, while allowing them to use their AWS committed spend for IBM software purchases.

The expansion will provide clients with more access to IBM’s AI and data technologies within a portfolio of 44 listings and 29 SaaS offerings that are available for purchase. These include components of the watsonx AI and data platform, which allow enterprises to build, scale and govern AI workloads. 

For example, Watsonx.data is a fit-for-purpose data store built on an open data lakehouse architecture, and Watsonx.ai is a next generation enterprise studio for AI builders are available in AWS Marketplace, alongside two of IBM’s AI Assistants – watsonx Assistant and watsonx Orchestrate. Watsonx.governance is expected to be available soon.

Other software includes IBM’s flagship database Db2 Cloud Pak for Data as well as a portfolio of automation software including Apptio, Turbonomic and Instana, and the IBM Security and Sustainability software portfolios – all built on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS. 

The company is also launching 15 new IBM Consulting professional services and assets on AWS Marketplace, exclusively designed for AWS. To align with client needs and demand, the offerings focus on data and application modernization, security services and tailored industry-specific solutions – with generative AI capabilities included in select services. 

Matt Yanchyshyn, general manager, AWS Marketplace and partner services, AWS said: “IBM’s global expansion with AWS Marketplace opens up innovation opportunities for our joint customers across the world.

“By leveraging the speed and simplified procurement capabilities of AWS Marketplace, customers can now more easily access IBM’s cutting-edge solutions, enabling them to accelerate their digital transformation and drive innovation at scale. This expanded collaboration between AWS and IBM reflects our shared commitment to empowering customers with the tools and resources they need to succeed in today’s fast-paced environment.”

Nick Otto, head of global strategic partnerships, IBM, said: “By expanding the availability of our software portfolio in AWS Marketplace, organizations around the world will have greater access to a streamlined way to procure many IBM AI and hybrid cloud offerings to help propel their business forward.”

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The partnership will involve the two companies experimenting with new technology like Azure OpenAI Service to develop innovative generative AI use cases across various business functions. This includes testing how Copilot for Microsoft 365 could help improve workplace productivity.

Coca-Cola has migrated all its applications to Microsoft Azure and is currently exploring the use of GenAI-powered digital assistants on Azure OpenAI Service to help employees improve customer experiences, streamline operations, foster innovation, gain a competitive advantage, boost efficiency and uncover new growth opportunities.

As part of the partnership, Coca-Cola has made a $1.1bn commitment to Microsoft Cloud and its GenAI capabilities. The collaboration is a step in the company’s ongoing technology transformation, underpinned by Microsoft Cloud as Coca-Cola’s globally preferred cloud and AI platform. 

Coca-Cola’s digital transformation has a ​​focus on providing expanded access to Microsoft’s cloud and AI platforms, as well as solutions such as Microsoft 365, Power BI, Dynamics 365, Defender and Fabric. The company hopes to enhance efficiency and scalability while fostering innovation across the system.

Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, Microsoft, said: “Through our long-term partnership, we’ve made significant progress to accelerate systemwide AI transformation across The Coca-Cola Company and its network of independent bottlers worldwide.

“We’re proud to support Coca-Cola as it continues to embrace the era of AI and looks to solutions like Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot to drive innovation across every area of its business.”

John Murphy, president and CFO of The Coca-Cola Company, also commented: “This new agreement builds on the success of Coca-Cola’s partnership strategy with Microsoft, showing our commitment to ongoing digital transformation.

“Our partnership with Microsoft has grown exponentially, from the $250m agreement we initially announced in 2020 to $1.1bn today.”

Neeraj Tolmare, SVP and global CIO for The Coca-Cola Company, said: “Our expanded partnership with Microsoft is an important next chapter in Coca-Cola’s journey toward a digital-first enterprise powered by emerging technologies.

“Microsoft’s capabilities help accelerate our adoption of AI to create incremental enterprise value.”

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Looking to sharpen (pun intended) its dress sense in the search intelligence space Everlane has now worked with Algolia to grasp its end-to-end AI search and discovery platform technology. By adopting Algolia NeuralSearch, Everlane is said to be using the power of vector and keyword search with end-to-end AI processing on every search query.

Converting conversions

Using Algolia’s AI Search, Everlane says it has achieved a 45% decrease in the return of ‘no results’ (i.e. when a customer searches for a product or service on a website and gets a zero listing result in response), which is a 5% increase in conversions and an 8% increase in its click-through rate. 

“No matter what the shopper is seeking, we want them to find their choice quickly and easily – and that is what Algolia helps us do. We want to deliver a distinctive, frictionless customer experience efficiently across our digital channels,” said Rachel Maxwell, senior manager, digital merchandising at Everlane. “Algolia helped us boost our performance while reducing the engineering lift across the merchandising team. This has helped us to optimize the search function on our site.”

As we know, results are important and speed is important too. According to a Deloitte Digital commissioned report that analyzed mobile site data, a seemingly negligible 0.1 second improvement in site speed generated an 8.4% increase in conversions and a 9.2% increase in average order value among retail consumers.

Manual synonym maintenance

“By using Algolia’s AI Search it has simplified data cleanup and manual synonym maintenance and meant that our lean in-house site merchandising team can focus on other priorities. Algolia’s technology has helped to streamline operations and allow our teams to focus on what truly matters—our customers,” added Maxwell. 

Through the prowess of Natural Language Understanding (NLU), automatic vectorization, adaptive learning and what are known as ‘ingenious query suggestions’, Everlane’s e-commerce platform now deciphers even the most complex, long tail queries. These are the queries that reflect the way people speak and think – conversational, dynamic and real. In fact, they constitute a staggering 55% of searches.

“Gone are the days of grappling with unwieldy data cleanup and laborious manual synonym maintenance. The introduction of Algolia’s AI Search has orchestrated a paradigm shift, liberating Everlane’s lean merchandising team from this time-consuming ordeal. It’s a testament to how Algolia’s technology, when wielded with precision, can streamline operations and allow teams to focus on what truly matters – nurturing and delighting customers,” added Maxwell.

Resource rejuvenation

Since NeuralSearch became part of its strategy, Everlane no longer has to spend time and resources cleaning up its data. The day-in and day-out maintenance across all teams is significantly reduced. 

“We are thrilled to partner with Everlane, a trailblazer in the fashion industry. Their commitment to sustainability, creativity and excellence aligns seamlessly with our own ethos of pushing boundaries and delivering unparalleled customer experiences,” said Bernadette Nixon, CEO, Algolia. “Everlane’s voyage with Algolia AI Search is not just a tech upgrade; it’s an embrace of a future where retail seamlessly blends with technology, making every search a delightful journey for the discerning shopper.” 

Within Algolia’s end-to-end AI Search and Discovery platform, the company’s engineers invented a breakthrough use of AI to create exponentially better search & discovery. Algolia’s proprietary NeuralSearch tech combines vector-based natural language processing & keyword matching in a single API. 

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This strategic alliance builds off a multiyear partnership between the organizations. KPMG and Opkey’s combined work have attracted a number of Fortune 500 clients.

While KPMG is a mainstay in providing tax and advisory services to worldwide organizations, KPMG LLP is a United States member firm arm that specifically works in auditing, offering accounting, compliance, forensic accounting and other financial advice.

This alliance is in addition to KPMG Venture’s recent minority equity investment and further builds on the established collaborative relationship between KPMG and Opkey.

Opkey says it remains committed to streamlining customer testing at every stage of their digital journeys. “Opkey is by nature a disruptive technology, and one that brings accelerated efficiency to companies that are tired of the old ways of testing,” says Opkey CEO, Pankaj Goel. “We are thrilled for this deepening partnership with KPMG & for the opportunity to keep pioneering new test automation solutions that push this industry forward.”

Ryan Burns, principal, KPMG, said the move is a step forward for both organizations. “KPMG is looking forward to continued success in partnering with Opkey to incorporate best-in-class test automation into our extensive offerings. This strategic alliance provides an exciting opportunity to accelerate innovation together for our clients.”

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