Buy Combines eCommerce Data and Solutions Firms

In the US SmartCommerce, a provider of data-centric, AI-assisted solutions for CPG and related industries, has paid an undisclosed sum to acquire eCommerce optimization and category/channel insights specialist Basketful.

SmartCommerce's platform pulls in real-time data on product availability, location and pricing for millions of CPG SKUs, to optimize eCommerce operations for brands and their retail partners. The company's Click2Cart platform allows consumers to save to a cart products they see in ads, on social media, in emails, on web sites and on product packaging - more than $3bn of products have been saved into carts in the last twelve months, for a network of more than 1,000 retailers globally. The firm was founded by former leaders of Channel Intelligence, a company acquired by Google in 2013, and is backed by New York-based growth equity firm Argentum.

Basketful aims to 'simplify grocery shopping' via smarter digital shelves; and helps brands use the resulting consumer behavior data to identify and unlock high-growth marketplace opportunities.

The companies have already begun integrating technologies, and SmartCommerce - which also recently acquired recipe software firm Myxx, Inc. - says it will begin providing enhanced services to clients before the end of the year. According to CEO Jennifer Silverberg: 'When brands make it easy for consumers to get what they want, Marketing doesn't have to be a spending treadmill - it can instead build a connected audience that is an annuity for a brand. Basketful brings strong reach and visibility tools that help make Marketing work both harder and longer for CPG and FMCG brands, and we're thrilled to be able to bring more of those to our clients'.

Jim Lesch, who co-founded Basketful with Eugene Burd, comments:' Consumers amplify the messages that matter to them, and filter the ones that don't - so effective marketing requires getting the right message on the right product to the right consumer at the right time and in the right context - and our tools and insights engine combined with SmartCommerce data and reach will help accelerate that for CPG brands'.

The companies are based in Minneapolis and Atlanta, GA respectively, and online at www.basketful.co and www.smartcommerce.com .