Snowflake and AWS Partnership Update Improves Delivery and Demand Forecasting

Josh Miramant

Posted On:
May 23, 2022

If you’re an Amazon seller, you know the importance of data to select what products to list on the market. As expenses and savings increase for different products, navigating through market needs and offering exactly what your audience seeks depends heavily on data, and today we have big news on these services!

Snowflake, the advanced data company which is growing at an immense pace, recently announced another update of its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Sellers in the retail space or consumed packaged goods (CPG) industry now have more data to digest for advanced demand forecasting and better delivery processes. 

The announcement states that customers will now be able to bring the data concerning demand forecast generated from Amazon Forecast and Amazon purchase order (PO) together in Snowflake’s Retail Data Cloud. But how does this help businesses and affect their conversions, and what are Retail Data Cloud, Amazon Forecast, and Amazon purchase order data?


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Understanding Retail Data Cloud, Amazon Forecast & PO

Retail brands and CPGs won’t have to study data separately anymore. After this announcement, they will be able to pull the data from third-party data providers together with data from Amazon PO into one platform: Snowflake. No more delayed decisions will be taken due to the long periods it takes to move or copy data, and everything will be controlled from a single point in Snowflake known as the Retail Data Cloud. Let’s take a closer examination of it and other elements: 

Retail Data Cloud

Launched back in March 2022, Snowflake’s Retail Data Cloud is the result of the unification between Snowflake, its data platform, industry-specific data sets, and partner-delivered solutions. Retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and industry technology providers can utilize their own data and access new data for more data-based decisions.   


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Amazon Forecast

Using the power of machine learning (ML), Amazon Forecast is a fully managed service that produces advanced forecasts and requires minimal to no grasp of machine learning experience to utilize it. This is made possible by feeding historical data and time-series data into it.

Purchase Order (PO)

Purchase orders (POs) resemble invoices since they consist of a list of products or services but their distinction from invoices is that they are prepared by buyers entailing what they are seeking to buy. A PO is important for accurate tracking of sales data. 

How Can Businesses Benefit from This Update? 

Rosemary Hua, Global Head of Retail & CPG at Snowflake said that “Amazon.com has revolutionized how retail and CPG businesses sell and deliver to consumers and, similarly, Snowflake has had a profound impact on empowering businesses to optimize their operations and seamlessly collaborate on data. Together, Snowflake and AWS can streamline data-driven inventory management for items sold on Amazon.” A few perks we can name for retail and CPG customers are: 

  • Easier Tracking of Changes’ Impact. In order to stay coherent with the manufacturer’s standards, tracking the changes in products dimension and weight is important, and this has now become easier. 
  • PO Importing. Importing Amazon PO data into Snowflake facilitates the access and shareability of data. 
  • Increased Accuracy. The integration allows more accurate forecasts thanks to the involvement of machine learning models from Amazon Forecast. 
  • Improve OTIF. On-time in-full (OTIF) metrics are enhanced for better organic ranking, and an accurate track of product’s stock to lower chargeback expenses. 
  • Increased SKU (Stock-Keeping Unit) Match with Sales. Vendors are able to match forecasts with SKU sales to avoid revenue loss from a lack of stock for fast-selling products.  

Final Thoughts

The competitive retail and CPG industry can be challenged only through a data-driven approach, and we believe tools offered by companies like Snowflake can really change the game. The latest announcement helps Amazon sellers make more data-driven decisions that are customer-centric. 

As acknowledged partners of AWS and Snowflake, at Blue Orange Digital we have developed data-driven solutions that include predictive analysis, machine learning, data transformation, and other data science approaches to steer businesses on their path to steady growth. Schedule a free 15-minutes consultation with us here to learn how we can help you and your organization.