Google Cloud has announced a partnership with Nana Direct, a pioneering online grocery shopping and delivery startup that offers Saudi households a convenient online grocery shopping experience.
Google Cloud and Nana Direct have been working together to transform the on-line grocery shopping experience in the Kingdom, connecting households with local grocery stores and supermarkets and ensuring the delivery of handpicked and packaged fresh fruits, vegetables, and groceries right to their doorstep within a 15-minute window.
Ziad Jammal, Digital Natives Lead, MENA at Google Cloud said; “The collaboration with Nana Direct is an exciting opportunity for Google Cloud to bring innovative e-commerce solutions to life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and share decades worth of expertise in establishing digital natives. Working hand in hand with Nana Direct on their set up from day one, has most definitely helped establish them for success as they became a household name across the country. We are delighted that our work with Nana Direct continues to support in elevating the consumer’s experience for seamless grocery shopping and delivery, as the market continues to demonstrate the rise in demand for such services even as Coronavirus restrictions are being lifted in KSA”.
Nana’s online grocery shopping experience, which is accessible via the App or the website, is entirely powered by Google Cloud. Running the entire IT backend on Google Cloud allows Nana to grow and scale their business as it expands throughout the Kingdom. It also enables the rapid deployment of features while running on Google Cloud’s highly safe, secure, and reliable global infrastructure.
Sami Al Helwah, Founder and CEO of Nana Direct added: “From day one at Nana Direct, a strategic decision was made to build our entire back-end from the ground up on Google Cloud. This is due to the innovative technological capabilities that Google Cloud provides, combined with the unique expertise in the digital natives and retail space which was shared with us from the onset. The level of support we received and continue to receive everyday from the team is unprecedented, and having this type of support has enabled us to develop a clear digital roadmap for the business, with growth and development at the heart of it”.
Working with Google Cloud’s unique AI and data warehousing solutions, such as BigQuery, has transformed how the Nana team analyzes data and makes sound business decisions. Nana used BigQuery to implement AI modules that improved business forecasting, understood consumer behavior at a deeper level, and increased efficiency levels to 69 percent by 2021.
With on-time delivery being a key differentiator for Nana, the team turned to Google Cloud’s Fleet Routing tool to help improve fleet utilization. The solution also assisted in dispatching trucks for deliveries by using Google Maps to identify the most efficient routes in the Kingdom, which resulted in 40 percent better on-time delivery.
As Saudi Arabia transitions into a post-pandemic world, Nana expands and grows with the launch of Nana Express and Nana Hyper, which add pharmacies, supermarket chains, and specialty stores to its portfolio of on-line services. Nana was able to scale operations quickly and accommodate a surge in orders following a recent 360 marketing campaign that introduced Nana Express and Nana Hyper to the market, thanks to Google Cloud’s dependable infrastructure. As a result, the campaign resulted in a 50% (month on month) increase in orders for the months of December (2021) and January this year.
