Singapore – Shopmatic has announced an exclusive partnership with VMLY&R, the global brand and customer experience agency, to launch a co-branded commerce platform, a one-click, channel-neutral commerce solution for WPP’s client partners.
The agreement will make VMLY&R the only agency or consulting network to deliver an end-to-end commerce solution to clients, from its Commercial Growth Consulting offering to completing actual transactions and last-mile logistics.
Through the partnership, VMLY&R will be rolling out solution stacks on the platform that span from social through rural commerce, with general trade commerce on-boarding by the end of the year.
“The partnership with VMLY&R gives us access to the world’s largest companies, such as Unilever, Kraft Heinz, Ford, and Swaraj Tractors, and more importantly, comes with VMLY&R’s ability to drive volume and value through our co-branded platform,” commented Anurag Avula, Shopmatic’s co-founder and CEO.
Hari Ramanathan, the chief strategy and transformation officer at VMLY&R Asia, said that partnering with Shopmatic allows them to move clients to very margin-friendly direct-to-consumer and third-party models.
“Combined with our existing growth-hacking solution for marketplaces, 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,” said Ramanathan.
Beth Ann Kaminkow, VMLY&R Commerce’s global CEO and VMLY&R New York’s CEO, noted, “With Shopmatic’s diverse commerce platforms, be it chat, social, webstores, or marketplaces, we can now offer our clients solutions in all the places their customers are, not only streamlining the experience but improving every interaction a customer has with our clients’ brands.”
According to Shopmatic, in its seven years of operations, the platform has onboarded one million merchants and clocked US$400m in gross merchandise value (GMV), and is set on its path to cross the five million merchants mark over the next three years with US$3b GMV.
The new co-branded commerce platform will be launching in India by the end of this year and will roll out globally shortly after.
