The retail and e-commerce industry is facing a "data deluge" due to rapid digitization, resulting in an enormous influx of customer, inventory, and other data types. This challenge is pressuring businesses, primarily due to the industry's need for more insight into customers and operations with every click, purchase, return, subscription, and review. Many growing companies are struggling to build and maintain proper in-house pipelines and infrastructure in a scalable, real-time, cost-effective manner. The pressure of rapid digitization, data maneuverability, and slowing market conditions has increased the need for operational efficiency, leading some businesses to reduce staff, limit technology procurement, and curtail data investments. To address this challenge, companies are adopting a cloud-based data warehouse solution as the central element of their Modern Data Stack (MDS), which offers advantages such as data ownership, quick value realization, streamlined synchronization, and reusability. However, implementing a successful MDS requires three critical layers: data collection, transformation, and activation. Some businesses are leveraging tools like dbt and Census to streamline their data management and activation initiatives, and companies can benefit from adopting a modern approach to data modeling with the help of skilled partners like Hiflylabs.