The cloud data warehouse specialist has launched another industry-specific product, this time aimed at helping companies in the retail and consumer goods sectors to manage their data. Credit: Edwin Tan After launching the Healthcare and Life Sciences Data Cloud Platform just a week ago, Snowflake has announced a Retail Data Cloud aimed at helping retail and consumer goods companies make the most of their data. With Snowflake’s proprietary cloud data warehouse at its heart, the Retail Data Cloud brings together Snowflake’s highly-scalable data warehousing, analytics and compliance tools, with access to third-party data sources and resources through a data marketplace, and various partner consulting services from the likes of Capgemini and Infosys. The Retail Data Cloud will also include prebuilt data applications from various technology and consulting partners. For example, a Retail Intelligence dashboard has been built with partner Tableau to help retailers plug in their data and automatically gain insights into pre-optimized working and hiring patterns. Or, customers looking to apply machine learning to their data can turn to partners such as Amazon Web Services, Dataiku or DataRobot for faster time-to-market. “The retail industry has seen some disruptions of late due to the pandemic and ongoing geopolitical crises,” Rosemary Hua, global head of industry go-to-market for retail and consumer goods at Snowflake said. “These problems are a result of enterprises being unable to predict how customers are reacting to the changing circumstances.” Snowflake now offers four industry-specific versions of its platform, with the two launches this year joining the Financial Services Data Cloud and Media Data Cloud, that were both introduced last year. “Data brings visibility and efficiency-driving insight to all stakeholders in retail,” Doug Henschen, principal analyst at Constellation Research said in response to the announcement. Henschen sees your average retail customer taking a phased approach to adopting these various capabilities, starting with data management and analytics, before investigating the prebuilt, industry-specific capabilities from partners. “Even further up the ladder are data-sharing, data-enrichment and, potentially, data-monetization opportunities that might drive yet more efficiency, sales, and profit opportunities for all constituents, while, of course, respecting compliance and privacy safeguards,” he added. Snowflake won’t have it all its own way in this market however, as rival data management vendor Databricks launched its first industry-specific Data Lakehouse for Retail and Consumer Goods Customers back in January. Related content opinion The AI cat and mouse game has begun Proactive adoption of sophisticated AI-based solutions is necessary to stay ahead of digital imposters. By Rick Grinnell Apr 29, 2024 5 mins Artificial Intelligence Security opinion Capitalizing on technology budgets: A CIO’s story There are untapped profits in data-driven technology budgeting. By David Smith Apr 29, 2024 5 mins CIO news analysis Microsoft can’t keep up with demand for AI in the cloud — for now Usually when demand outstrips supply, prices go up or customers go elsewhere. But will they have time to before the balance changes? By Anirban Ghoshal Apr 29, 2024 5 mins Generative AI Microsoft news Data protection activists accuse ChatGPT of GDPR breach When the LLM hallucinates incorrect personal information, there’s no way to get it fixed, they say. By Jennifer Baker Apr 29, 2024 3 mins Data Privacy Generative AI Compliance PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe