Retail & ecommerce · benchmark
Data platform modernization in retail & ecommerce: published results
Retail and ecommerce businesses run on high-volume, fast-changing data: orders, catalogs, pricing, loyalty and clickstream. We collected 35 public case studies from Databricks and Snowflake customers in retail, consumer goods and ecommerce, and extracted every outcome they report.
- median cost reduction (16 results)
- 50%
- median speed-up where reported as a multiplier (8 results)
- 10x
- of case studies report a cost outcome
- 43%
- published case studies (20 Databricks and 15 Snowflake)
- 35
Analysis
What the results have in common
Our reading of the 35 published outcomes, and what it means if you're planning a program.
Operational cost is the most consistent result
Cost reductions in this set are spread across many companies rather than a few outliers, usually from moving off fixed-capacity infrastructure and processing data incrementally instead of rebuilding it every night.
Speed matters most where models meet customers
The largest speed-ups are in getting forecasting, personalization and pricing models into production faster, which is where retail data teams feel pressure from the business.
Revenue claims are more common than in other industries
Retail is the one sector where companies regularly attribute sales or conversion gains to data work, mostly through personalization, search and better product content. These are worth benchmarking, but check how each one was measured before using it in your own plan.
Cost
Largest reported cost reductions
Median 50% across 16 results. Each bar is one published result.
| Company | Reduction | What was reduced |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot Company | 90% | Decrease in overall processing costs |
| KFC | 70% | fewer database operational costs |
| Wehkamp | 70% | Reduction in operational costs |
| Skechers | 68% | Decrease in cost per click |
| Gousto | 60% | Infrastructure cost reduction |
| Ahold Delhaize | 50% | Cost reduction |
| jö Bonus Club | 50% | reduction in data management platform license costs |
| LG Electronics | 50% | Reduction in existing total costs |
| LG Electronics | 50% | Decrease in customer data unification costs |
| Flaconi | 40% | Reduction in staff costs |
| The Swing | 40% | Reduction in business operating costs |
| ElasticRun | 33% | In cost savings on more than 20 systems |
Speed
Biggest speed-ups
- 200xFlaconiFaster time-to-market for new models
- 16xNaturaFaster production and time to insights of ESG impact
- 10xjö Bonus Clubmaximum performance factor increase
- 10xLa Rosée CosmétiquesQuicker to set up sales platforms in a new region
- 10xRSG GroupSpeed to insight supports new products and timely customer interventions
Business outcomes
Revenue and risk results
- $600MAir MilesIn redemption value, contributing to $70 billion in total sales
- 10%Al FuttaimHigher automotive sales
- 8%Arezzo&CoIncrease in sales through employee referral channel
- 2xFurniture.comIncrease in conversion from intelligent review summaries and tags
- 26%Furniture.comBoost in conversion when NLP-powered collections are surfaced
- 98.6%Pilot CompanyAccuracy in document processing of BOLs, accelerating revenue recognition
Method
How we built this benchmark
We collected every public retail and ecommerce customer story from Databricks and Snowflake that reports at least two numbers, 35 in total, on 27 October 2026. Each headline number was recorded exactly as published and classified as a cost, speed, revenue, risk or scale outcome. Medians use only results that are directly comparable: percentages up to 100% and "N×" multipliers.
Limits: Numbers are self-reported by the customer and published by the platform vendor, which favours successful programs. Revenue figures in particular depend on how each company measured them.
These are not Metric Oak engagements. See every source in the library, or read how we approach retail and ecommerce.
Case studies in this benchmark: 84.51, Accor, Ahold Delhaize, Air Miles, Al Futtaim, Arezzo&Co, Carhartt, ElasticRun, Etam, Flaconi, Flix, Furniture.com, Gousto, HelloFresh, Hot Topic, Huel, IFood, Jeongyookgak, jö Bonus Club, John Paul, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), KFC, La Rosée Cosmétiques, LG Electronics, Natura, Natura Cosméticos, Pilot Company, Rinascente, RSG Group, Simba Sleep, Skechers, Tapestry, The Swing, Wehkamp, Wolt
Frequently asked questions
What cost reduction do retail and ecommerce companies report after modernizing their data platform?
Across 16 cost results published by retail and ecommerce organizations in this set, the median reported reduction is 50%, ranging from 28% to 90%. 43% of the 35 case studies report a cost outcome at all.
How much faster do data workloads get after modernization in retail and ecommerce?
Where results are reported as a multiplier, the median is 10x faster across 8 results. Where they're reported as a percentage, the median is 64% faster across 5 results. The largest gains are in batch processing and getting models into production.
Databricks or Snowflake: which gets better results in retail and ecommerce?
This set includes 20 Databricks and 15 Snowflake case studies, with results across a similar range on both. Published case studies can't settle the question, because each vendor publishes its own best results. The right choice depends on your workloads, your team's skills and your existing contracts. The Data Platform Assessment ends with a written recommendation.
Are these numbers realistic for my organization?
Treat them as an upper-quartile view. Numbers are self-reported by the customer and published by the platform vendor, which favours successful programs. Revenue figures in particular depend on how each company measured them. Your own baseline (current cost, batch windows and delivery times) is what a business case should be built on.
Where does this data come from?
From 35 public customer case studies published by Databricks and Snowflake, collected on 27 October 2026. We record each headline number exactly as published and link to every source in our case-study library.
How long does a data platform modernization take?
Published case studies report duration inconsistently, so we don't benchmark it here. As a guide, Metric Oak's Data Platform Assessment takes 3 weeks, and the first migrated domain typically reaches production 4–6 weeks after that.
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