VMLY&R, a WPP group company, announced an exclusive partnership with leading e-commerce solutions provider Shopmatic.
The agreement entails the creation of a co-branded commerce platform that will offer e-commerce solutions for WPP’s clients. This will make VMLY&R the only agency or consulting network to deliver end-to-end commerce solutions to clients, the company said in a statement. The platform will be first rolled out in India at the end of this year before going global.
VMLY&R is a global brand and customer experience agency that is behind award-winning campaigns for blue-chip clients such as Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Dell, Ford, Intel, and Wendy's, among others.
Headquartered in Singapore, Shopmatic helps companies drive their omnichannel strategies by offering solutions for e-commerce and retail management. It provides services for domain names, integrations with domestic and international payment gateways, inventory management, and CRM solutions.
With Shopmatic on board, VMLY&R will roll out social commerce, rural commerce, and general trade commerce solutions for its clients.
Shopmatic co-founder and CEO, Anurag Avula said the partnership was game-changing as it gave them access to the world’s largest companies, such as Unilever, Kraft Heinz, Ford, and Swaraj Tractors.
Hari Ramanathan, chief strategy and transformation officer for VMLY&R Asia, said that Shopmatic allows the agency to move clients to very margin-friendly Direct-to-Consumer and third-party models. “…we can co-own commercial outcomes with brand owners rather than simply selling our products and services. With Shopmatic, we are entering a new era for commerce partnerships with clients," he said.
In its seven years of operations, Shopmatic has onboarded one million merchants and clocked USD $400 million in gross merchandise value (GMV). The company is on road to cross the five million merchants mark over the next three years with USD $3 billion GMV.
Sourced from Mint