Modern MarTech drives retail customer connections for Germany’s leading drugstore
Scalable, automated segmentation for real-time personalization.
90% faster marketing cycles
dmTECH achieved this using SAS® Customer Intelligence 360 integrated with Snowflake
dm-drogerie markt (dm) is Germany’s leading drugstore, providing everyday health, beauty, baby and household essentials to more than 26 million households. While most customers once shopped exclusively in-store, many now prefer the convenience of dm’s website and mobile app. This shift makes the modernization project at dmTECH – dm’s in-house technology company – especially timely, as it powers the cross-channel platforms driving the retailer’s digital transformation.
Our data warehouse used to have operating hours. Today, we can run unlimited campaigns around the clock – that’s a huge advantage.Marcel Veith Data Engineer dmTECH
Smart, streamlined and built to scale
Every year, ServiceBarometer AG publishes its “Customer Monitor” survey, and in 2024, dm ranked No. 1 in overall customer satisfaction within its industry. More than 27,500 shoppers also rated the company highly for value and employee friendliness. For CEO Christoph Werner, the results confirm that dm’s philosophy is working: deliver precisely what customers need and “eliminate the superfluous.”
That same customer-first mindset guided dmTECH’s MarTech modernization – a project aimed at sharpening personalization, expanding reach and tightening operations, all while upholding strict data-protection standards.
After more than a decade of success with SAS Marketing Automation, dmTECH faced a pivotal choice: stay the course or upgrade to SAS Customer Intelligence 360 as part of its planned migration to the Snowflake AI Data Cloud.
“Initially, there were concerns that moving to SAS Customer Intelligence 360 would require a complete rethink,” says Marcel Veith, modernization project manager and Data Engineer at dmTECH. “But the proof of concept showed that added sophistication didn’t mean added complexity. In fact, it felt familiar – just better.”
What’s new – and why it matters to marketers
- Data mesh ownership – Domain teams own their data products, improving freshness and accountability. Result: cleaner inputs and faster iteration on audiences.
- Privacy by design – No personally identifiable information is stored in the cloud. Selection logic runs in the backend; execution layers receive masked data only.
- Reusable segmentation – Marketers can now copy or tweak audience logic, rather than rebuilding it from scratch – accelerating test-and-learn cycles.
- Ops efficiency – Monthly processing time for recurring jobs dropped from five-to-10 hours to just one. Combined with cloud efficiencies, dmTECH reports operating cost reductions of up to 90%.
dmTECH – Facts & Figures
3 TB
of customer and campaign data
15 million
customer messages per day
800+
automated tasks executed daily
The data stack behind the strategy
Migrating to Snowflake required a new data model, so dmTECH used this opportunity to eliminate legacy issues and optimize for customer communication. A key change was adopting a data mesh approach, assigning data ownership to individual domain teams. This improved consistency and made data fresher and more actionable.
To ensure GDPR compliance, no personally identifiable information is stored in the cloud. Audience selection is handled in the backend, while downstream systems receive only masked data.
Snowflake now houses about 3 terabytes of governed master data (customer, product, store) and transaction data (purchases, coupons, responses). SAS Customer Intelligence 360 uses this data to build and deliver dynamic campaigns across web, app, email, print and the PAYBACK loyalty program – all with built-in automation and monitoring.
The system runs with absolute stability, even during peak times with high task volumes. “Our data warehouse used to have operating hours,” Veith says. “Today, we can run unlimited campaigns around the clock – that’s a huge advantage.”
Results that scale (and stick)
- Scale – Cross-channel personalization.
- Speed – From batch windows to 24/7 orchestration.
- Efficiency – Up to 90% faster marketing cycles.
- Governance – Masked data and backend selections meet strict data protection requirements.
- Reusability – Faster campaign build times via reusable segments and criteria.
Customer use case: the glückskind program
One of the most compelling examples of dm’s customer-centric strategy is its glückskind (“lucky child”) program, which provides personalized messages and offers to millions of families.
This free program is designed to support parents at every stage of their journey – from pregnancy through their child’s twelfth birthday. Glückskind provides helpful tips, exclusive coupons, thoughtful gifts and opportunities to try new products, all tailored to meet families’ evolving needs.
With SAS Customer Intelligence 360, dmTECH ensures that communications and offers are always relevant and timely, adapting as families grow and their circumstances change. The platform’s flexible segmentation allows dmTECH to respond quickly to new needs and roll out new program features and offers efficiently – enabling the launch of hundreds of new subprograms overnight if needed, all without having to re-engineer the underlying model. This scalability means dm can continually enhance the program to better support families.
“It has always been dm’s goal to reach customers with individual, personalized and relevant offers, and SAS Customer Intelligence 360 is key to making this happen at scale,” Veith concludes.
