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Last week, Portland-headquartered <a href="https://www.sheerid.com/shoppers/" target="_blank">SheerID</a> announced a new partnership with composable commerce vendor <a href="https://commercetools.com/" target="_blank">commercetools</a>. The goal: help merchants create better personalization and more relevant offers and promotions for consumers based on identified customer segmentation.
“Our partnership with SheerID further demonstrates our commitment to providing our merchants with access to market-leading technologies,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygoetsch/" target="_blank">Kelly Goetsch</a>, chief strategy officer at commercetools. “We look forward to working together to help merchants sell more, grow faster, and create meaningful connections that build customer engagement and loyalty.”
<h2>SheerID gets personal</h2>
SheerID operates what it calls a “digital verification engine.” With more than 20,000 authoritative data sources, the system helps to instantly verify eligible customers for offers they qualify for.
With brands like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/andy-jassy-amazons-new-ceo-signals-bold-future-for-loud-and-digital-experiences/">Amazon</a>, Spotify, and T-Mobile already on the verification platform, SheerID boasts their customers have received three times the conversion of their typical campaigns when utilizing the verification platform.
“Our strategic partnership with commercetools enables the company’s merchants to access our audience verification service, driving significant business outcomes,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeweatherly/" target="_blank">Jake Weatherly</a>, chief executive officer at SheerID. “Providing offers to valuable consumer communities like students, teachers, and healthcare professionals is a proven strategy to drive immediate sales. In the cookieless future, online merchants increasingly rely on privacy-compliant, zero-party data marketing solutions like this to drive consumer acquisition, retention, and loyalty.”
<h2>Heading headless with commercetools</h2>
The partnership with commercetools – a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/">leading headless commerce platform</a> and member of the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> – was a natural fit for SheerID to improve customer segmentation. More integrations like SheerID and commercetools could be likely in the future as companies embrace the headless commerce structure, allowing for greater flexibility and more software offerings.
“The integration was conceived with MACH principles in mind,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyvanags/" target="_blank">Andy Vanags</a>, global director of retail technologies and marketplace partnerships at SheerID. “Companies will be able to flexibly set up SheerID with their existing frontend e-commerce systems and DXP, CDP, and marketing automation systems. With our supporting documentation and sample open-source code, a merchant's developer or system integrator can easily leverage the verified customer data to create custom promotions, feed the loyalty system and/or personalize the site experience. Companies are only limited by their imagination!”
<h2>About commercetools</h2>
The inventor of headless commerce, <a href="https://commercetools.com/?utm_source=press_release&amp;utm_medium=announcement&amp;utm_campaign=publicis" target="_blank">commercetools</a> is an innovative technology disruptor that has established itself as an industry-leading eCommerce software provider. Today, some of the world’s most iconic brands and growth-focused businesses trust commercetools’ powerful, flexible, scalable solutions to support their ever-evolving digital commerce needs. As the visionaries leading the modern MACH (Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native and Headless) architecture movement, commercetools provides customers with the agility to innovate and iterate on the fly, merge on and off-line channels, drive higher revenue, and future-proof their eCommerce business.
<h2>About SheerID</h2>
SheerID is the global leader in identity marketing. With SheerID, brands identify and acquire customers from highly valued consumer communities — such as the military, students, teachers, first responders, and more — with personalized offers, gated by instant verification from the largest set of authoritative data worldwide. SheerID verifies over 2.5 billion people via 20,000 authoritative data sources; provides global insights from hundreds of the world’s leading brands, and never shares or sells customer data. As a result, the world’s biggest brands — including Amazon, Home Depot, Spotify, and T-Mobile — rely on SheerID as their identity marketing partner. Founded in 2011, SheerID is backed by Fortson VC, Brighton Park Capital, Centana Growth Partners, Voyager Capital, and CVC Growth Partners. For more information, please visit <a href="https://www.sheerid.com/business/" target="_blank">SheerID</a> or follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/SheerID" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/sheerid/about/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SheerIDdotcom" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.

SheerID and commercetools Form Partnership to Provide More Personalization and Better Offers for Consumers

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Talk about a sonic "bloom."
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">Bloomreach</a>, a leading content and search platform focused on commerce, just made some big noise by <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/news/2022/bloomreach-valuation-soars-to-usd2.2-billion-following-usd175-million-investment-led-by-goldman-sachs-asset-management" target="_blank">announcing</a> a $175 million round of funding, skyrocketing the company's valuation to a whopping $2.2 billion. 
The investment – which follows a massive <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/26/bloomreach-raises-150m-on-900m-valuation-and-acquires-exponea/" target="_blank">$150 million funding round</a> in January 2021 – was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management ("Goldman Saalamogordochs"), with participation from existing Bloomreach investors Bain Capital Ventures and Sixth Street Growth. 
The size of these two infusions demonstrates some serious confidence from the street. With heavy-hitters like Goldman Sachs piling on the cash, it's clear that investors see continued opportunities in digital commerce transformation, particularly at the enterprise level. Bloomreach has made a series of smart investments along the way, giving them the heft to challenge one of the biggest e-commerce brands on the planet.
<h2>Arming brands against Amazon with personalized e-commerce</h2>
When it comes to e-commerce – or any commerce for that matter – it's impossible to ignore "The Amazon Effect." 
In the 25 years since Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com from a garage in suburban Seattle, it has grown to become the top e-commerce platform in the world. Each month, <a href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/amazon-statistics/#10-fascinating-amazon-statistics-sellers-need-to-know-in-2020" target="_blank">more than 197 million people</a> around the globe visit Amazon.com. That's more than the entire population of Russia.
Worldwide e-commerce sales <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/worldwide-ecommerce-continues-double-digit-growth-following-pandemic-push-online" target="_blank">are expected</a> to reach $7.4 trillion by 2025. According to <a href="https://www.ibm.com/industries/retail" target="_blank">IBM's U.S. Retail Index</a> data, COVID-19 has accelerated retail trends by nearly five years. E-commerce sales <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/871/online-shopping/" target="_blank">were skyrocketing</a> before the pandemic, and Amazon was already monopolizing most of the air in the digital room. As contactless delivery became essential during COVID lockdowns, Amazon moved into its pole position as the uncontested leader in digital customer experiences. 
<a href="https://www.mdm.com/news/operations/amazon-business-says-company-reached-25-billion-in-2020-sales/">Amazon's grasp over the e-commerce world</a> is viewed as an existential threat to many global brands. Even giants like Walmart, Apple, and Macy’s are struggling to compete with the digital heavyweight. But according to Bloomreach, brands now have a weapon to fight Amazon – giving retailers, distributors, and manufacturers a platform for delivering highly relevant and personalized digital experiences with speed and scalability.
<h2>Moving away from monolithic</h2>
According to Raj De Datta, CEO of Bloomreach, the key to competing is the move from monolithic e-commerce platforms to microservices-based architectures that empower not just the web, but all digital touchpoints. That way, enterprises can have more control over the customer experience by making it highly personalized and innovating quickly.
"It starts in the early days of the web, with Amazon and eBay, when e-commerce was in its infancy. Twenty years later, e-commerce is exactly where we would expect a 20-year-old to be — just getting started," said De Datta. "Indeed, at Bloomreach, we believe that if the first 20 years of e-commerce have been about standing up the store or simply transacting online, then the next twenty years are about standing out from the crowd, or differentiating in the face of increased digital competition and rising consumer expectation. "
<h2>Growing its Commerce Experience Cloud</h2>
Following its latest round of funding, Bloomreach plans to invest in the development of cutting-edge personalization use cases powered by its entire <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en" target="_blank">Commerce Experience Cloud</a>, showcasing the differentiated power of its combined product suite. In addition, Bloomreach will invest in expanding its go-to-market teams to accelerate business growth worldwide.
Currently, Bloomreach's DXP for Commerce helps keep customers engaged, increases revenue per visit, and drives customer loyalty. The company says that the solution integrates with leading commerce platforms to form a complete e-commerce solution. Bloomreach further enhances its commerce offerings with AI-powered search, intelligent merchandising, and highly agile content management, which are fast becoming essential tools for shaping modern e-commerce experiences. 
Additionally, <a href="https://www.bloomreach.com/en/products/bloomreach-experience" target="_blank">Bloomreach Experience (brX)</a> currently drives over $200 billion in digital commerce experiences across many of the world's largest online retailers, brands, distributors, and B2B manufacturers – representing 25% of retail e-commerce in the U.S. and U.K. With Bloomreach Experience, organizations can access rich features, all powered by an API-first headless architecture. This makes it easier for brands to connect Bloomreach with their existing commerce platform and frontend technologies and avoid many of the rigors of re-platforming everything.
In 2021, Bloomreach <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/bloomreach-acquires-exponea-secures-150m-investment-to-power-e-commerce-saas-expansion/" target="_blank">acquired Exponea</a>, a Customer Data and Experience Platform (CDXP), with the goal of integrating its market-leading e-commerce capabilities with Exponea's best-in-class customer data (CDP) and marketing automation capabilities. With this combination, Bloomreach appears well-poised to accelerate the creation, personalization, and optimization of powerful commerce experiences.
<h2>About Bloomreach</h2>
Bloomreach is the world’s #1 Commerce Experience Cloud, empowering brands to deliver customer journeys so personalized, they feel like magic. It offers a suite of products that drive true personalization and digital commerce growth, including: Discovery, offering AI-driven search and merchandising; Content, offering a headless CMS; and Engagement, offering a leading CDP and marketing automation solutions. Together, these solutions combine the power of unified customer and product data with the speed and scale of AI-optimization, enabling revenue-driving digital commerce experiences that convert on any channel and every journey. Bloomreach serves over 850 global brands including Albertsons, Bosch, Puma, FC Bayern München, and Marks &amp; Spencer. For more information, visit <a href="https://bit.ly/2EfrSOZ" target="_blank">Bloomreach.com</a>.

Bloomreach Reaches $2.2 Billion Valuation Following $175 Million Investment from Goldman Sachs

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Image of rocket flying with people on top of it, next to text that reads "$175 million investment"

Just before Christmas, <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/" target="_blank">Optimizely</a> – a leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider – delivered a gift that we're still unwrapping: an integrated version of its <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/products/commerce/b2b/" target="_blank">B2B Commerce Cloud</a> and <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/products/content/" target="_blank">Content Cloud</a> products.
OK... so maybe the other schwag under your tree had a bit more pizzazz. But this tidy pairing brings some real power to brands, particularly those looking to reach audiences with sophisticated content strategies and digital experiences. The new integration also has to potential to help large marketing teams collaborate more effectively around their content – providing a more complete ecosystem of services.
According to Optimizely, the integration leverages its B2B Commerce Cloud as a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">headless commerce</a> API, making B2B data and capabilities available in Content Cloud. The coupling enables users to access B2B-specific features in the Commerce Cloud while using Content Cloud CMS to manage all the pages, templates, content, and assets of their website. Content Cloud also lets marketers build and manage multiple sites while leveraging shared data for customers, products, and orders in B2B Commerce Cloud.
Another key feature of the integrated solution is a combined out-of-the-box search engine, allowing users to search products in the B2B Commerce catalog as well as the Content Cloud – and return combined results. Users can also manage their product catalog in B2B Commerce and have them available in Content Cloud.
“Optimizely Content Cloud has a long history of providing marketers with extensive tools for content publication and creation of exceptional digital experiences,” said Justin Anovick, Chief Product Officer of Optimizely. “With the integration of B2B Commerce Cloud, businesses can extend these tools to B2B customers, enabling the delivery of optimal digital experiences across audiences.”
<h2>Powering buying experiences with B2B Commerce Cloud</h2>
To be clear, Optimizely's B2B Commerce Cloud and Content Cloud have been stand-outs in their own right. The former has carved a decent niche as a one-stop commerce solution, decreasing the complexity of a brand's online commerce stack by collectively managing catalogs, quotes, orders, product configurations, and more – all with one holistic view. It also boasts personalization capabilities, leveraging data-driven recommendations to power custom digital commerce experiences.
Optimizely has focused its B2B Commerce Cloud on manufacturers and distributors, helping them configure custom solutions that meet their specific brand requirements. Additionally, the solution has made the connections with an organization's ERP, PIM, and other backend systems more efficient, allowing them to scale their growth across their stack. Those connections are key, and so is maintaining the security of a brand's data; to that end, Optimizely has achieved ISO certifications in its pursuit of assuring the highest standards of data security with B2B Commerce Cloud.
<h2>Create once, publish everywhere with Content Cloud CMS</h2>
On the other side of the integration equation is Optimizely's Content Cloud, a shadow of the former Episerver (which, as you know, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform/">purchased Optimizely in 2020</a> and consolidated under its banner). Content Cloud has been enabling marketing teams to leverage an industry-leading content management system to distribute content across channels with a coupled, headless, or hybrid CMS model – or via Optimizely's global network.
Content Cloud boasts a wide berth of rich features including personalized media management, drag-and-drop layouts and authoring, custom workflows, and more. The system also enables users to create and target personalized content and commerce experiences based on dynamic audience segments. The personalization features come out of the box at a rules-based level but can be upgraded through their <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/hyper-personalization/" target="_blank">AI-powered 1:1 personalization</a> with <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/products/intelligence/recommendations/" target="_blank">Content Recommendations.</a>
<h2>Providing sample resources and implementation support</h2>
One thing Optimizely consistently does well is listen to customers. This has been most evident following the large-scale acquisitions of Episerver and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-acquires-customer-data-platform-zaius/">Zaius</a>, where users needed both training and vision to build confidence around the company's roadmap. This is just one contributing factor to the company's leadership positions on <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner's 2021 Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>, as well as the <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/company/press/optimizely-named-a-leader-in-agile-content-management-systems/" target="_blank">Forrester Wave for Agile Content Management Systems</a>.
To help customers get the most from this new integration, Optimizely is releasing a B2B-specific sample site packed with Content Cloud templates and blocks – giving users a pipeline of resources to accelerate their builds. In its press release, the company said that the sample site will answer the "time-to-market metric" variables that many B2B customers weigh when selecting technology vendors. Once again, evidence that Optimizely is listening to the voice of the customer and thinking ahead.
Additionally, Optimizely has named <a href="https://www.nishtech.com/">Nishtech</a> – a full-service digital experience and e-commerce consultancy – as a preferred implementation partner to support the B2B Commerce Cloud/Content Cloud integration. Nishtech is an Optimizely Platinum Partner that has first-hand experience with the new integration and can be contracted to guide customers and their agencies through setting up and utilizing the new integration.
<h2>About Optimizely</h2>
<a href="http://www.optimizely.com/">Optimizely</a> is on a mission to help people unlock their digital potential. With their leading digital experience platform (DXP), they equip teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely’s 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM, and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands.

Optimizely Integrates B2B Commerce Cloud and Content Cloud, Combines Headless Commerce with CMS

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Optimizely logo against a black background

Talk about welcome news.
Earlier in December, <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/" target="_blank">Optimizely</a> – a leading digital experience platform (DXP) – announced a definitive agreement to purchase <a href="https://welcomesoftware.com/" target="_blank">Welcome</a>, a content marketing (CMP), marketing resource management (MRM), and digital asset management (DAM) platform.
Yes, that's a lot of three-lettered acronyms for one sentence...
While the DXP juggernaut is no stranger to acquisitions (they were, in fact, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-rebrands-as-optimizely-following-acquisition/">purchased by Episerver in 2020</a> but rebranded under the Optimizely name), this one provides a glimpse of the company's ambition to win the minds and hearts of internal marketers.
According to Welcome's press release, the combination will empower marketing teams at brands across the globe to drive real business value through better customer experiences.
“We believe a world-class customer experience starts with an outstanding marketer experience,” said Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely. “By combining Welcome’s campaign planning, content production, and asset management capabilities with Optimizely’s existing breadth of digital experience solutions, we empower marketers to rapidly launch campaigns and control the optimization of every digital touchpoint which results in growth for the business.”
As the deal is set to close before the New Year, it's clear that Optimizely is making a 2022 resolution to focus more on the discrete needs of marketers, who are chiefly responsible for driving customer experience. With the rise of digital tools and hybrid work environments, marketers are becoming the "engines" of business growth by shaping consumer engagement. At the same time, they are being forced to adapt and respond to a fluid digital landscape, where a fragmented stack is arresting their ability to deliver personalized, relevant content and experiences at scale.
Bottom line: Optimizely aims to improve the marketer experience by adding Welcome's CMP, MRM, and DAM capabilities to their expanding ecosystem.
<h2>Combining marketing, content management, digital commerce, and personalization</h2>
As a four-time <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210325005585/en/Welcome-a-NewsCred-Brand-Named-a-Leader-Now-4-Years-Running-in-the-2021-Gartner-Magic-Quadrant-for-Content-Marketing-Platforms" target="_blank">Leader on the Gartner Magic Quadrant</a>, Welcome has carved a strong niche in the small but growing cadre of Content Marketing Platforms (CMP).
As Gartner noted in their most recent report, "Welcome’s vision as a marketing orchestration software, combining the capabilities of a CMP, MWM, DAM, offers promise." This positioning certainly made the platform a more attractive target for Optimizely.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/12/gartner_mq_cmp-971x1024.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant, 2021 for CMP" />
By combining Welcome's capabilities with Optimizely's suite of content management and digital commerce solutions, marketers will now have enhanced tools for a wide range of applications – all in a unified platform. This includes the "Holy Grail" of experimentation, personalization, and recommendations that have often remained elusive for marketing professionals and teams.
Under the Optimizely banner, marketers will be able to leverage Welcome's features on an evolutionary scale, allowing them to accelerate the end-to-end marketing lifecycle from concept to execution. This will allow users and teams to plan, create, and collaborate on campaigns and publish across multiple channels to reach the right audiences. They will also have unprecedented control and transparency to manage content delivery without relying on the support of IT or development.
The combined set of capabilities should be a force multiplier for Optimizely, enabling marketers to grow revenue by scaling best-in-class data-driven tools such as A/B testing and content recommendations, augmented by Welcome's content marketing processes. Marketers will also be able to easily share results across their organization, providing greater insight into the impact of their marketing investment.
“We could not be more excited to be joining the Optimizely family,” said Shafqat Islam, CEO and co-founder of Welcome. “We’ve made it our mission to transform the way marketers work, by delivering a purpose-built solution to orchestrate all of marketing. Now, together with Optimizely, we believe we are unifying two category-leading solutions to see that mission through.”
<h2>A string of strategic acquisitions</h2>
As the DXP category becomes more crowded, enterprise vendors are clawing their way to the top of the mountain. In Gartner's <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3995917/magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms" target="_blank">2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>, Optimizely found itself chasing the heels of both <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-upgrades-open-dxp-capabilities-to-expand-composable-enterprise-features/">Acquia</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-acquires-video-collaboration-platform-frame-io/">Adobe</a> in pursuit of the crown.
To enhance their DXP completeness of vision and gain competitive ground, all three platforms have been scooping up strategic technologies – including Optimizely's 2021 <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-acquires-customer-data-platform-zaius/">purchase of Zauis</a>, a leading customer data platform (CDP).
Adding this all-important data layer gave Optimizely a needed edge, but the purchase of Welcome is key. Not only does it signal a renewed focus on the role of the marketer, but it repositions the power of the platform on the marketer's experience. Providing an integrated, end-to-end lifecycle solution for managing content, assets, and resources – and amplifying it with the commerce and optimization features of a proven DXP – could be a real gamechanger for Optimizely. We'll be watching as the next steps unfold.
<h2>About Optimizely</h2>
Optimizely is a leading digital experience platform (DXP), equipping teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely’s 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands.
<h2>About Welcome</h2>
Welcome transforms how marketers run marketing. It is the leading marketing orchestration platform used by the world’s most successful brands to strategically align teams, take the friction out of execution, and demonstrate meaningful results. Only Welcome offers a platform purpose-built for the complexities of modern marketing that can scale to support the largest teams in the world. It is a new layer of the marketing technology stack where marketers can work better together, connect other martech tools, and measure performance. Welcome unleashes the potential of marketing.

Optimizely's Acquisition of Welcome Signals Expanded Focus on Marketers

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