Sports-inspired apparel brand Puma has teamed up with Google Cloud to further improve the digital shopping experience of global customers using generative AI. 

Their collaboration marks a significant step in digital retail, with PUMA as the first in the industry to deploy AI-generated imagery on a large scale in its online store. 

The sports brand can leverage Imagen 2 on Vertex AI to create dynamic and personalised product imagery. 

This can lead to increased click-through rates and a faster time-to-market for its digital campaigns across the globe. 

PUMA can also use Imagen 2 on Vertex AI to generate relevant visuals, including new background images that resonate with the product, customer and regional context. 

The technology, while available globally, enables PUMA's regional marketers to customise content to meet their specific market requirements.  

In addition to improving image generation, Imagen on Vertex AI aids PUMA content editors with image editing tasks such as shadowing, composition and colour accuracy, enhancing productivity. 

Following the migration of its e-commerce ecosystem to Google Cloud, PUMA is experiencing improvement across its online shopping portfolio, including an increase in average order value and a reduction in the time required to make products available online.  

PUMA CEO Arne Freundt stated: "At PUMA, all product creations always start with the consumer first in mind, and we have the ambition to be as personal as possible in each interaction with our consumers. Google Cloud's generative AI has allowed us to create an immersive experience that is tailored to each consumer, and we are already seeing the benefits.”  

PUMA is set to explore Imagen 3, Google Cloud's advanced text-to-image model, to further enhance and scale its campaign creation.  

The brand also plans to extend the use of Google Cloud's Vertex AI Search for Retail to more subsidiaries to boost average order values and shopper conversion rates.  

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said: "Google Cloud is helping companies in every industry improve the customer experience with gen AI-powered agents, and our partnership with PUMA is an excellent example of this. The creative agent Puma has built with our leading Imagen technology is taking personalisation to a new level - and driving real business results.”  

In January 2024, Puma partnered with software company Yottaa to enhance its e-commerce site performance worldwide.