Retail Insight Network

Daily Newsletter

29 November 2023

Daily Newsletter

Very expands partnership with Amazon Web Services

The Gen AI Innovation Lab will combine the companies’ capabilities to offer interactive and personalised shopping experiences.

British e-commerce retailer The Very Group has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) to improve the shopping experience for online customers using generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The group’s Very online brand will launch a new innovation lab powered by generative AI, machine learning and storage capabilities.

By combining advanced cloud and generative AI capabilities with Very’s retailing experience and insights, the lab will bring customers interactive and personalised digital shopping experiences, new products and e-commerce offerings.

Engineers and data teams from Very and the newly launched $100m AWS Generative AI Innovation Centre will work together to safely use AWS generative AI capabilities through Amazon Bedrock.

AI experts will help Very to navigate technical challenges and launch new customer experiences.

Very Group chief information officer Matt Grest stated: “We want to be recognised as one of the UK’s leading AI-powered retailers. To keep our customers satisfied and transform our business operations, we've chosen to build on our existing strategic relationship with AWS and incubate new generative AI-powered products with a trusted collaborator and innovator who understands how we work with data at scale."

The Very Group has already used Amazon SageMaker, a cloud-based machine-learning platform, to transform its business operations.

The company uses AI to forecast product demand and plan inventory, improving customer experience in the retail industry.

Personalization has grown alongside online retail

Personalization has increased as technologies have advanced, with a retailer’s ability to collect, analyze, and utilize consumer data being aided by the effective use of analytics tools. Consumers are also increasingly individualistic, especially Gen Z, and want products that are specifically targeted to their needs and goals. These consumers are often willing to pay a premium for such items. Personalized products are currently especially prevalent in the health & beauty sector, due to the links to the health & wellness trend, which is also particularly important to young consumers.