Data & AI
Data Cloud
Cloud23 implements Salesforce Data Cloud to unify customer data from core systems, channels and CRM into real-time profiles that power personalisation, analytics and AI.
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Salesforce for Retail & Consumer
Cloud23 helps retail and consumer organisations turn fragmented customer data into unified profiles and consistent service across every channel, using Salesforce Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.
Cloud23 helps retail and consumer businesses unify customer data from store, e-commerce and loyalty systems into one profile, and use it to run service, personalisation and AI-assisted support that treat the customer as one person rather than three records.
Cloud23's delivery record is in financial services, and we say so plainly rather than implying retail credentials we have not earned. The capabilities retail programmes need, however, are ones we exercise constantly: Data Cloud identity resolution, Service Cloud case management at consumer scale, MuleSoft integration across ERP, e-commerce and point-of-sale estates, and digital product design for journeys used by millions of ordinary customers rather than trained staff.
Privacy regulation shapes the opportunity. POPIA in South Africa and GDPR where it applies both constrain how customer data may be collected and used for marketing — which penalises sprawling, unaccountable data estates and rewards a single well-governed, consent-aware profile. The same investment that makes personalisation lawful also makes it effective.
The context
Pressures shaping the sector
Customers benchmark you against the best experience anywhere
Expectations are set by the smoothest app on the customer's phone, not by other retailers. Slow service and channel-blind interactions read as indifference.
Customer data is fragmented across the estate
POS, e-commerce, loyalty and service systems each hold a partial customer. Without identity resolution, personalisation misfires and service agents start every contact blind.
Margin pressure makes cost of service acute
Order status and returns queries dominate contact volume. Every routine contact that could self-serve but does not is margin spent on avoidable conversation.
Loyalty programmes must earn their keep
Points and discounts are expensive. The return comes from what the programme teaches you about customers — which requires the data to be connected and usable.
Privacy regulation constrains lazy personalisation
POPIA and GDPR require lawful basis and consent management for marketing use of personal data. Retailers need consent-aware profiles, not scattered lists of uncertain provenance.
How we help
Capabilities we bring to the sector
Unified customer profiles on Data Cloud
Identity resolution across store, online, loyalty and service data, producing a single consented profile that segmentation, service and AI agents can all trust.
Customer service on Service Cloud
Case management with full order and loyalty context, across email, chat, social and voice — so agents resolve on first contact instead of investigating.
AI agents for routine service
Scoped Agentforce agents for order status, returns and store queries, grounded in live order data, with clean hand-off to humans for judgement calls.
Integration across ERP, e-commerce and POS
MuleSoft API-led integration connecting commerce, fulfilment and finance systems, so customer-facing platforms show live stock, order and delivery truth.
Digital product design for consumer journeys
Journey and interface design for the general public — the difference between a portal that deflects contacts and one that generates them.
Where to start
Practical transformation opportunities
- A unified customer profile across store, e-commerce and loyalty data as the foundation for everything else
- Order status and returns self-service, targeting the two biggest routine contact drivers
- AI-assisted service for routine queries with escalation to human agents for exceptions
- Loyalty programme management with consent-aware personalisation under POPIA and GDPR
- Clienteling tools that give store associates the customer's online and loyalty context
- Post-purchase journeys that convert first-time buyers into repeat customers
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does Cloud23 have retail clients?
Cloud23's named case studies are in banking and financial services, and we are explicit about that. For retail and consumer businesses, we offer the underlying capabilities — Data Cloud identity resolution, consumer-scale service on Service Cloud, MuleSoft integration and consumer journey design — delivered by a team used to regulated data handling and high transaction volumes.
What is Data Cloud, and why does it matter for retail?
Data Cloud is Salesforce's customer data platform. It ingests data from commerce, POS, loyalty and service systems, resolves the identities that belong to the same person, and produces unified profiles with consent status attached. For retail it is the difference between guessing and knowing: segmentation, service context and AI agents all become dramatically better when they draw on one accurate profile instead of several partial ones.
Can AI agents genuinely handle retail customer service?
For routine, well-bounded queries — order status, returns initiation, store information, loyalty balance — yes, and these typically dominate contact volume. The conditions are accurate grounding in live order and customer data, tight scoping so the agent declines what it cannot do, and clean escalation to humans. Deployed that way, AI agents cut queue times for everyone, including the customers who still need a person.
How does POPIA affect retail personalisation and loyalty?
POPIA requires a lawful basis for processing personal information and gives customers rights over direct marketing, so personalisation must run on data the customer knowingly provided with consent that is recorded and respected. In practice this favours a single well-governed profile with consent management built in — which is precisely what a Data Cloud implementation provides — over fragmented marketing lists whose provenance nobody can evidence.
Keep exploring
Related services and work
Salesforce
Service & Contact Centre Transformation (Service Cloud)
Cloud23 transforms service operations and contact centres on Salesforce Service Cloud, unifying channels, case management, knowledge and telephony into a single agent workspace.
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Agentforce & Enterprise AI
Cloud23 designs, builds and operates Salesforce Agentforce agents and enterprise AI solutions that do real work in service, sales and operations, grounded in your data and governed by explicit guardrails.
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MuleSoft & Enterprise Integration
Cloud23 designs and builds enterprise integration on MuleSoft, using API-led architecture to connect Salesforce with core banking, payments, identity and legacy systems for regulated businesses across Africa and beyond.
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Digital Product & Experience Design
Cloud23 provides digital product and experience design — research, journey mapping, service blueprints, UX and UI, and design systems — for the customer portals, onboarding journeys and agent workspaces built on platforms such as Salesforce.
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Discuss a retail transformation
Tell us where you're starting from. We'll bring people who have delivered in your sector's real constraints.