Google gen AI enhances digital shopping at Puma

  • October 1, 2024
  • Steve Rogerson

Google Cloud is enhancing the digital shopping experience for millions of sports retailer Puma shoppers worldwide using generative artificial intelligence (gen AI).

Puma was one of the first in its industry to use AI imagery in its online shop at scale. Using the Imagen 2 on Vertex AI image generator, Puma can create dynamic and personalised product imagery that is improving click-through rates and accelerating the time-to-market for Puma’s digital campaigns globally.

Using Imagen 2 on Vertex AI (cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/image/overview), Puma can generate relevant imagery, such as background images that are tailored to the product, customer and region. While the technology is available globally, Imagen on Vertex AI empowers marketers in individual Puma regions to tailor content to their markets.

For example, while shopping online, customers from Japan may see a lifestyle shoe worn on the streets of Ginza or a trail running shoe on the foothills of Mount Fuji. Beyond image generation, Imagen on Vertex AI also becomes a tool for image editing, aiding content editors with time-consuming tasks, such as shadowing, composition and colour accuracy, resolution, and product positioning.

Since migrating its ecommerce ecosystem, including puma.com, to Google Cloud earlier this year, Puma has experienced benefits across its online shopping portfolio. In addition to increasing average order value (AOV) thanks to better personalised content with Google Cloud’s data and AI tools, retail teams have also reduced the time needed to take products to market, enabling them to make products shoppable the moment they reach the warehouse.

“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,” said Arne Freundt, CEO of Puma. “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 will soon explore Imagen 3, Google Cloud’s latest text-to-image model, as it continues to scale campaign creation. The sports company also plans to expand the implementation of Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Search for Retail to more subsidiaries to improve AOV and overall shopper conversion rate.

“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,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud (cloud.google.com). “The creative agent Puma has built with our leading Imagen technology is taking personalisation to a new level, and driving real business results.”

Puma distributes its products in more than 120 countries, employs about 20,000 people worldwide, and is headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany.