Dunelm has announced a significant enhancement to its online shopping experience through a new collaboration with Google Cloud.
As part of the companies’ work together, Dunelm has implemented a new, generative AI-driven product discovery solution on Dunelm.com. This advancement promises to help "further improve the consumer’s online journey, making it much easier to discover and engage with Dunelm products online".
Towards the end of 2023, Dunelm recognised an opportunity to modernise its website search capabilities. By transitioning from a first-generation search engine to Google Cloud's Vertex AI Search for Retail platform, Dunelm aimed to provide a seamless and increasingly personalised shopping journey for its customers. Today, with Vertex AI Search for Retail, Dunelm can now offer Google-quality product discovery on its website, resulting in a significantly improved search experience for its customers.
John Gahagan, chief technology and information officer at Dunelm, says: “A key part of our strategy is to improve the ways we connect products to our customers. Partnering with Google Cloud brings innovative generative AI solutions to our online search capabilities, making it much easier for customers to find the products they want. This is an exciting step forward in providing a best-in-class online shopping experience. By leveraging the power of AI, we're making it easier than ever for our customers to find inspiration, supporting our growth potential as ‘The Home of Homes.’"
Early testing of the new generative AI platform in 2024 yielded some notable improvements to key metrics, including a significant reduction in search friction, with less than 1% of search terms returning zero results. These enhancements translated to a more intuitive and efficient shopping experience, says Dunelm, allowing customers to quickly discover the right products for their homes, from the retailer's extensive ranges across multiple homeware and furniture categories.
"Website search abandonment costs retailers millions of pounds annually, as consumers are unable to find the specific products they need," adds Tara Brady, president, Google Cloud EMEA. "We're proud to collaborate on this important project to use generative AI to improve consumer experiences and shape the future of retail."
Dunelm's work with Google Cloud was in partnership with Kin + Carta (recently acquired by Valtech), which supported the initial design and experimentation of the programme.
