Algolia Search and Discovery Platform Optimizes Walgreens’ Omnichannel Shopping

Algolia, the leading API Platform for Search & Discovery, today announced its selection by Walgreens, an integrated pharmacy, healthcare and retail leader serving millions of customers and patients every day, to improve the company’s digital search experience for Walgreens customers. The new search functionality helps Walgreens shoppers find relevant items available locally, a benefit as more consumers can now buy online and pickup in-store in as little as 30 minutes. Algolia’s API-first, easy-to-use technology was initially deployed through the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and launched for Walgreens within a single quarter, creating a fast time to value and return on investment.

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“That’s more than a year of missed incremental revenue opportunities. With Algolia and its foundational API building blocks, Walgreens is able to benefit immediately, extending the Algolia APIs into Walgreens’ custom front-end architecture, while still being able to prepare for more advanced capabilities in the future.”

Algolia’s business tooling and dashboards provide Walgreens’ business operations and merchandising teams with optimized search and discovery in order to drive conversions, cart sizes, new promotions, increase revenue and, ultimately, improve customer loyalty and the shopping experience.

“Walgreens’ clear commitment to digital commerce transformation is second-to-none and has made them an ideal brand to work with,” said Bernadette Nixon, Chief Executive Officer for Algolia. “Walgreens is the perfect example of how search and discovery is more than what happens on a retailer’s site. With a faster, more relevant search, Walgreens is able to provide a seamless omnichannel experience that connects consumers with in-stock items nearby while leaning on one of its great strengths – the convenience of having a store in nearly every neighborhood.”

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“Working with Algolia enables us to deliver a frictionless experience for our digital shoppers,” said Lindsay Mikos, senior director of omni channel strategy and programs for Walgreens. “From start to finish, the 16-week deployment and live production is providing real-time transparency for our shoppers for the items they are looking for. As buy online, pickup in store continues to trend upward for consumers, Algolia is helping Walgreens be even more agile with its eCommerce strategies and more responsive to customer demands.”

A key aspect of the rapid implementation milestone married the strategic needs of Walgreens to technical improvements in a very quick timeframe ensuring a seamless transition from Walgreens’ former system to Algolia as its search and discovery platform.

“Adding the necessary modern search and discovery features on top of Walgreens’ previous platform may have taken up to 18 months,” said Mikos. “That’s more than a year of missed incremental revenue opportunities. With Algolia and its foundational API building blocks, Walgreens is able to benefit immediately, extending the Algolia APIs into Walgreens’ custom front-end architecture, while still being able to prepare for more advanced capabilities in the future.”

By choosing Algolia on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Walgreens has been able to take advantage of the many benefits of the Azure Marketplace including a reduced transaction and procurement process, on-demand scalability, high availability, and cybersecurity.

“Procuring technology has never been more complex. I am very excited that Microsoft Azure Marketplace could help connect Algolia with Walgreens and help simplify the process of finding, purchasing, and deploying Algolia’s search technology,” said Jake Zborowski, General Manager at Microsoft. “We hope that by streamlining discovery and purchase experience our customers, like Walgreens and Algolia, can focus their energy driving technology projects that lead to business growth versus spending extended cycles simply trying to find and purchase technology.”

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