Ulta Beauty Solves Seasonal Shopping

Steve Jurczak
June 15, 2023

The holiday season can feel like a whirlwind to retailers. Between keeping up with sudden shifts in shopper preferences, supply chain nuances, and a massive increase in demand, the hardest part can be ensuring great customer experiences, both in store and online. This year, retailers have a unique challenge ahead, as those on Google Cloud have experienced more online traffic in the first half of 2022 than in all of 2019. Retailers will need to get an early start to the 2023 shopping season since 50% of consumers plan to get a jump on their holiday shopping activity before the traditional start on Black Friday. Luckily, modern advancements in automation and infrastructure can help retailers survive seasonal spikes and stay innovative year-round.

A platform for innovation

Ulta Beauty's system overhaul proved to be a success when they implemented Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and enabled the development of cloud-native applications. Ulta Beauty was able to take advantage of the new strategic change to swiftly fix bugs, test new offerings, and provide customers with far better experiences. Thanks to this transformation and using GKE, their developers are now able to launch new products and services faster, and create great customer interactions faster. Now Ulta Beauty's guests have dynamic and personal connections with beauty and wellness, with their preferences taken into account. Despite this, the company had to overcome some difficulties. As Sethu Madhav Vure, IT Architect, Ulta Beauty, explains, "Microservices are not a silver bullet. For us, the struggle was breaking up a monolithic environment into multiple applications while keeping existing services functional and preparing for the future."

Ulta Beauty sought to simplify and scale through a domain-driven design approach. Identifying and grouping similarly structured operations enabled them to create a modern architecture. To match their needs for dynamic scaling, MongoDB Atlas was selected and leveraged with Google Cloud integrations, resulting in a quick proof of concept. Thanks to comprehensive resource allocation, Vure remarked, "The free tier of MongoDB Atlas allowed us to prove the value of the technology before we invested in it."

The innovative partnership between MongoDB Atlas and Google Cloud has enabled Ulta Beauty to maximize efficiency and take a rapid, iterative approach to their newest projects. It allows them to better manage their expansive data, and to deploy and scale offerings quickly and successfully, as seen in their recent unplanned traffic surge that took them less than an hour to manage. Equipped with the dynamic scalability of GKE and the on-demand functionality of MongoDB Atlas, Ulta Beauty can face any challenge with confidence.

Seasonal prep

Ulta Beauty has drastically improved its technical infrastructure to meet the demands of the holiday season. With just 20 GKE pods, the company is now able to scale up to 2,400 transactions per second! Partnering with Google Cloud, Ulta Beauty leveraged event-based integrations and Cloud Pub/Sub middleware on top of MongoDB Atlas integrations, resulting in an efficient process that maximizes the power of their platform.

By optimizing their technology partner stack, Ulta Beauty was able to make a dramatic shift in their IT culture, allowing them to trial new solutions faster and with the full support of leadership. The result? They were able to handle increased traffic during the holiday shopping season with ease, delivering the customer service they promised, free from the worry of outages. As Vure puts it, "We are now better prepared for a stress-free holiday season, enabling us to focus on creating even more great service for our customers."

Check out MongoDB on Google Cloud Marketplace to learn more about what these partners can do for your business.

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Improved Developer Experience with the Atlas Admin API

With MongoDB Atlas, we meet our developers where they are and offer multiple ways to get started and work with Atlas. One of the ways to get started programmatically with Atlas is through the Atlas Administration API. It provides programmatic access to Atlas resources such as clusters, database users, or backups to name a few, enabling developers to perform operational tasks like creating, modifying, and deleting resources. We are excited to announce two key capabilities that will improve the developer experience when working with the Atlas Administration API. Versioned Atlas Administration API If you use the Atlas Administration API today, you are working with the unversioned Administration API (/v1). We have heard your feedback on the challenges around the API changes not having a clear policy as well as communication gaps about the new features/ deprecations. To address this, we are excited to now introduce resource-level versioning with our new versioned Atlas Administration API ( /v2). Here is what you can expect: More predictability and consistency in handling API changes: With this new versioning, any breaking changes that can impact your code will only be introduced in a new resource version. You can rest assured that no breaking changes will affect your production code running the current, stable version. Also, deprecation will occur with the introduction of a new stable API resource version. This will give you at least 1 year to upgrade before the removal of the deprecated resource version. It adds more predictability to what’s coming to the API. Minimum impact with resource-based versioning: With the resource level versioning, whenever we talk about API versions we’re referring to the actual API resource versions represented by date. So once you migrate from the current unversioned Administration API (/v1) to the new versioned Administration API (/v2), this will point to version 2023-02-01. To make the initial migration process smooth and easy this first resource version applies to all API resources (e.g. /serverless, /backup, /clusters, etc.). However, moving forward, each resource can introduce a new version (e.g. /serverless can move to 2023-06-01, /backup can stay on 2023-02-01) independently from each other at various points in time. The advantage is that if you have not implemented the e.g. /serverless resource and say a new version is introduced, you will not need to take any action. You will only need to take action if and when the resources you are utilizing are deprecated. More time to plan your migration: Once a particular resource version is deprecated, there will be enough time ( 12 months) before it is removed, so this will give you ample time to plan and transition to the new version. Improved context and visibility: Our updated documentation has all the details to guide you through the versioning process. Whether it’s a release of a new endpoint, deprecation of an existing resource version, or a non-breaking change to a #stable resource - all of them are now tracked on a dedicated and automatically updated Changelog . Other than that we provide more visibility and context on any API changes through the API specification which presents information for all stable and deprecated resource versions enabling you to access documentation that’s relevant for your particular case. We have made it very simple for you to get started with the new versioned Administration API (/v2). To start using it you need to migrate from the current Unversioned Administration API (/v1) to the new Versioned Administration API (/v2). This migration can be done smoothly by making two changes in your code: Update the path of each endpoint from /v1 to /v2 . Add a version header to each endpoint: application/vnd.atlas.2023-02-01+json. The 2023-02-01 version will have a long support timeframe of 2 years from its deprecation, giving you ample time to transition. Read more about the versioned Admin API. To learn more about the transition process, read our migration guide . Go SDK for the Atlas Administration API One of the mechanisms that simplifies interaction with APIs is the availability of SDKs. To make it easy to get started and work with the Versioned Administration API, we are excited to introduce the new Go SDK for the Administration API. If you are a Go developer and have interacted with the Atlas Administration API, you must be familiar with our current Go client. We are now introducing the new Go SDK for the Atlas Admin API. This provides a significantly improved developer experience for Go developers as it supports full endpoint coverage, improves the speed of getting started with the versioned Admin API, provides you a consistent experience when working with the Admin API, and gives you the choice of version for better control of changes and the impact on the scripts. Let’s look at some of the benefits you can expect: Full Atlas Administration API endpoint coverage: The new Go SDK allows you to access all the features and capabilities that the Atlas Administration API offers today with full endpoint coverage. This ensures you can programmatically leverage the full breadth of the developer data platform. Flexibility in choosing the API resource version: When interacting with the new versioned Atlas Administration API through the Go SDK client, you can choose a particular version of the Admin API, giving you control over when you are impacted by breaking changes or always work with the latest version. Ease of use: Your getting started experience for Admin API through the Go SDK client is now much more simplified with fewer lines of code since it includes pre-built functions, structs, and methods that encapsulate the complexity of HTTP requests, authentication, error handling, versioning, and other low-level details. Immediate access to updates: When using the new Go SDK, you can immediately access any newly released Atlas Admin API capabilities. And every time a new version of Atlas is released, the SDK will be quickly updated and continuously maintained, ensuring compatibility with any changes in the API. Get started today with the GoSDK client. Also, refer to our migration guide to learn more.

June 15, 2023
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Better Digital Banking Experiences with AI and MongoDB

Interactive banking represents a new era in financial services where customers engage with digital platforms that anticipate, understand, and meet their needs in real-time. This approach encompasses AI-driven technologies such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and predictive analytics that allow banks to enhance digital self-service while delivering personalized, context-aware interactions. According to Accenture’s 2023 consumer banking study , 44% of consumers aged 18-44 reported difficulty accessing human support when needed, underscoring the demand for more responsive digital solutions that help bridge this gap between customers and financial services. Generative AI technologies like chatbots and virtual assistants can fill this need by instantly addressing inquiries, providing tailored financial advice, and anticipating future needs. This shift has tremendous growth potential; the global chatbot market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 23.3% from 2023 to 2030 , with the financial sector experiencing the fastest growth rate of 24.0%. This shift is more than just a convenience; it aims to create a smarter, more engaging, and intuitive banking journey for every user. Simplifying self-service banking with AI Navigating daily banking activities like transfers, payments, and withdrawals can often raise immediate questions for customers: “Can I overdraft my account?” “What will the penalties be?” or “How can I avoid these fees?” While the answers usually lie within the bank’s terms and conditions, these documents are often dense, complex, and overwhelming for the average user. At the same time, customers value their independence and want to handle their banking needs through self-service channels, but wading through extensive fine print isn't what they signed up for. By integrating AI-driven advisors into the digital banking experience, banks can provide a seamless, in-app solution that delivers instant, relevant answers. This removes the need for customers to leave the app to sift through pages of bank documentation in search of answers, or worse, endure the inconvenience of calling customer service. The result is a smoother and user-friendly interaction, where customers feel supported in their self-service journey, free from the frustration of navigating traditional, cumbersome information sources. The entire experience remains within the application, enhancing convenience and efficiency. Solution overview This AI-driven solution enhances the self-service experience in digital banking by applying Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) principles, which combine the power of generative AI with reliable information retrieval, ensuring that the chatbot provides accurate, contextually relevant responses. The approach begins by processing dense, text-heavy documents, like terms and conditions, often the source of customer inquiries. These documents are divided into smaller, manageable chunks vectorized to create searchable data representations. Storing these vectorized chunks in MongoDB Atlas allows for efficient querying using MongoDB Atlas Vector Search , making it possible to instantly retrieve relevant information based on the customer’s question. Figure 1: Detailed solution architecture When a customer inputs a question in the banking app, the system quickly identifies and retrieves the most relevant chunks using semantic search. The AI then uses this information to generate clear, contextually relevant answers within the app, enabling a smooth, frustration-free experience without requiring customers to sift through dense documents or contact support. Figure 2: Leafy Bank mock-up chatbot in action How MongoDB supports AI-driven banking solutions MongoDB offers unique capabilities that empower financial institutions to build and scale AI-driven applications. Unified data model for flexibility: MongoDB’s flexible document model unifies structured and unstructured data, creating a consistent dataset that enhances the AI’s ability to understand and respond to complex queries. This model enables financial institutions to store and manage customer data, transaction history, and document content within a single system, streamlining interactions and making AI responses more contextually relevant. Vector search for enhanced querying: MongoDB Atlas Vector Search makes it easy to perform semantic searches on vectorized document chunks, quickly retrieving the most relevant information to answer user questions. This capability allows the AI to find precise answers within dense documents, enhancing the self-service experience for customers. Scalable integration with AI models: MongoDB is designed to work seamlessly with leading AI frameworks, allowing banks to integrate and scale AI applications quickly and efficiently. By aligning MongoDB Atlas with cloud-based LLM providers, banks can use the best tools available to interpret and respond to customer queries accurately, meeting demand with responsive, real-time answers. High performance and cost efficiency: MongoDB’s multi-cloud, developer-friendly platform allows financial institutions to innovate without costly infrastructure changes. It’s built to scale as data and AI needs to grow, ensuring banks can continually improve the customer experience with minimal disruptions. MongoDB’s built-in scalability allows banks to expand their AI capabilities effortlessly, offering a future-proof foundation for digital banking. Building future-proof applications Implementing generative AI presents several advantages, not only for end-users of the interactive banking applications but also for financial institutions: Enhanced user experience encourages customer satisfaction, ensures retention, boosts reputation, and reduces customer turnover while unlocking new opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling to increase revenue, drive growth and elevate customer value. Moreover, adopting AI-driven initiatives prepares the groundwork for businesses to develop innovative, creative, and future-proof applications to address customer needs and upgrade business applications with features that are shaping the industry and will continue to do so, here are some examples: Summarize and categorize transactional information by powering applications with MongoDB’s Real-Time Analytics . Understand and find trends based on customer behavior that could positively impact and leverage fraud prevention , anti-money laundering (AML) , and credit card application (just to mention a few). Offering investing, budgeting, and loan assessments through AI-powered conversational banking experience. In today’s data-driven world, companies face increasing pressure to stay ahead of rapid technological advancements and ever-evolving customer demands. Now more than ever, businesses must deliver intuitive, robust, and high-performing services through their applications to remain competitive and meet user expectations. Luckily, MongoDB provides businesses with comprehensive reference architectures for building generative AI applications, an end-to-end technology stack that includes integrations with leading technology providers, professional services, and a coordinated support system through the MongoDB AI Applications Program (MAAP) . By building AI-enriched applications with the leading multi-cloud developer data platform, companies can leverage low-cost, efficient solutions through MongoDB’s flexible and scalable document model which empowers businesses to unify real-time, operational, unstructured, and AI-related data, extending and customizing their applications to seize upcoming technological opportunities. Check out these additional resources to get started on your AI journey with MongoDB: How Leading Industries are Transforming with AI and MongoDB Atlas - E-book Our Solutions Library is where you can learn about different use cases for gen AI and other interesting topics that are applied to financial services and many other industries.

November 26, 2024