LONDON – Microsoft and dunnhumby, the global leader in customer data science, announced today a global strategic partnership, in a move that could transform the $5.9 trillion retail sector. Under the partnership, dunnhumby will move its customer insights products to Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, giving retailers and suppliers instant and secure access to dunnhumby’s data science tools.
Because Azure can handle vast amounts of information securely and can cope with large spikes in demand, the partnership will enable more retailers and their suppliers to gain deep shopper and business insights, better understand their customers and improve collaboration.
“Retailers sit on vast amounts of data but often struggle to create meaningful insights for themselves or their suppliers,” said Clare Barclay, Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft UK. “Through this strategic partnership, retailers across the globe will benefit from the powerful intelligence that dunnhumby delivers through its market-leading tools with the scale, security and speed-to-market that has become synonymous with the Azure platform.”
dunnhumby works with transformative, iconic brands including Tesco, Meijer, Unilever and McDonald’s, using customer data science to help them deliver better shopping experiences for their customers. Retailers and suppliers are using machine learning and analytics to make better and quicker decisions that improve product promotions, assortment, development, and customer acquisition and retention.
dunnhumby analyses more than 395 million shopper baskets and nine billion data records every week so thousands of brands and suppliers in the grocery and drug sectors can understand how each of their individual products is performing with different types of shoppers. Combining dunnhumby’s tools, such as Shop on Lab, with the Azure cloud platform will allow many more retailers and suppliers to share critical insights into their businesses. The processing power of Azure and the machine-learning data science of dunnhumby can offer the right insights at the right time, so action can be taken quickly on business performance, new trends and innovation, brand switching and loyalty.
“This partnership will empower more retailers and brands across the globe to more effectively compete in this expansive yet turbulent industry,” said Guillaume Bacuvier, Chief Executive Officer at dunnhumby. “By providing access to our science and technology via Azure – the most secure cloud platform, favoured by many retailers today – our goal is to fundamentally change the way data is used in retail and completely democratise customer data science across the retail industry.”
About dunnhumby
dunnhumby is the global leader in Customer Data Science, empowering businesses everywhere to compete and thrive in the modern data-driven economy. We always put the Customer First.
Our mission: to enable businesses to grow and reimagine themselves by becoming advocates and champions for their Customers. With deep heritage and expertise in retail – one of the world’s most competitive markets, with a deluge of multi-dimensional data – dunnhumby today enables businesses all over the world, across industries, to be Customer First.
The dunnhumby Customer Data Science Platform is our unique mix of technology, software and consulting, enabling businesses to increase revenue and profits by delivering exceptional experiences for their Customers – in-store, offline and online. dunnhumby employs over 2,500 experts in offices throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas working for transformative, iconic brands such as Tesco, Coca-Cola, Meijer, Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal.
About Microsoft
Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
