Rite Aid has tapped Google Cloud for a multiyear technology partnership that will help ramp up the pharmacy chain's digital and data capabilities.
As part of the collaboration, Rite Aid will be migrating key applications, including its vaccine scheduling tool, customer messaging infrastructure and digital engagement platform, to Google Cloud's Anthos, a managed platform for application deployment.
The drugstore chain operates approximately 2,350 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states.
Google Cloud technologies will help the drugstore with better insights on its data, increased agility and improved customer experiences, executives said in a press release. And with Google Cloud’s cloud computing capabilities on-site at the drugstore’s pharmacies, the company will have more resilient operations through events like natural disasters.
Strategic business continuity enables the company to continue to provide elevated care during natural disasters through robust patient information, advanced prescription management and offering recommendations without needing to be connected to centralized, legacy mainframe technology, company executives said.
"The power of pharmacies, and the important role pharmacists play in the health of their communities, greatly expanded during COVID. Realizing that potential means making strategic investments in technology that can truly help our customers and maximize the capabilities of our pharmacists," said Justin Mennen, executive vice president and chief digital and technology officer at Rite Aid, in a statement. "Google Cloud's solutions are uniquely positioned to run at each pharmacy location to allow our store teams to help our customers to achieve whole health for life."
Rite Aid plans to use Google Cloud’s Retail Search solution to provide better search results for customers on the company’s eCommerce site and mobile app. These enhanced search capabilities will provide Rite Aid customers with an improved search experience that uses Google-quality search models to understand customer intent and takes into account Rite Aid's first-party data (such as promotions, available inventory and price) for product ranking results.
The pharmacy's benefits and services company, Elixir, also will migrate to Google Cloud. This transition will update its current pharmacy benefits management application suite to a cloud-first experience with artificial-intelligence- and machine-learning-infused business logic capabilities. New Google Cloud data analytics and processing capabilities will help the pharmacy benefits manager better manage prescription benefits on behalf of health insurers, according to the company.
"As a healthcare company with a retail footprint, Rite Aid is at the intersection of two quickly evolving industries and making strategic technology investments to meet rising customer expectations," said Carrie Tharp, vice president of retail and consumer solutions at Google Cloud, in a statement. "Through these innovations, Rite Aid is defining the modern pharmacy."
Two years ago, Rite Aid unveiled its new concept stores as it overhauls its brand to keep up with competitors like CVS Health and Walgreens. The redesigned stores, which are part of the company's broader RxEvolution brand overhaul, bring pharmacists out from behind the counter to enable them to communicate more directly with customers and included an overhauled assortment of products aimed at "clean, healthy living," Rite Aid said.
The company announced in 2020 that it planned to invest $700 million over two years to overhaul merchandise, implement workflow changes, reengineer how the entire pharmacy team works, change workspaces, hire more technicians and employ digital updates.
The store design overhaul echoes similar moves from other pharmacy chains, such as CVS's new HealthHUB pharmacy stores, which dedicate additional retail space to healthcare products and services.