Publicis Groupe plans to supercharge its ecommerce capabilities with the acquisition of Profitero.
Commercial details of the deal to buy the global ecommerce intelligence software as a service have not been revealed.
The move adds to Publicis’ weapons store, including the Australian startup CitrusAd, which helps retailers sell digital advertising to brands.
The deal will see Publicis combine Profitero’s industry leading product data and analytics with the adverftising group's retail media, data, and commerce solutions.
Global advertising groups have been investing in acquiring expertise in ecommerce following the global acceleration to online sales during the pandemic.
WPP in December acquired Cloud Commerce Group (CCG), a technology company that helps brands to market, sell and deliver their products across ecommerce platforms and marketplaces globally, such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Wayfair.
Havas Media Group last month launched Havas Market, a full-service ecommerce offering focused on digital shopping experiences that generate incremental revenue for clients.
Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun: “By adding Profitero to our existing assets, we are now uniquely positioned across the four key pillars our clients need to connect, to capture an unfair share of the exponential growth in online sales.
“With us, our clients will seamlessly understand people, how they shop better than anyone else, thanks to Epsilon; optimise their online product catalogue thanks to Profitero; maximise their online spend with retailers thanks to CitrusAd and the scale of Publicis Media.
“And they will be able to deliver unique, creative, customer experiences, through platforms backed by Publicis Sapient’s engineering expertise. I am delighted to welcome Sarah, Bryan, and their outstanding team of experts to the Publicis family.”
Profitero’s solutions provide actionable insights and product visibility to more than 4,000 brands and 70 million products on more than 700 retailer websites in more than 50 countries.
The ecommerce and omnichannel analytics offering allows brands to anticipate, activate, and automate the next best action to fuel profitable growth for each item of their product catalogue.
Profitero and its 300 staff will remain a product-focused company within Publicis.
Bryan Wiener, Profitero CEO: “This is the best of both worlds as we retain our entrepreneurial spirit as a product-led organization while benefiting from the Publicis Groupe's diverse capabilities and scale.
“This brings immediate value to our clients and employees with increased product and technology investment, infusion of new media and content activation capabilities and tapping into the Groupe’s global talent to fuel our continued growth.”
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