Publicis, IBM Expand eCommerce Partnership

Publicis Groupe and IBM have expanded their 10-year old e-commerce partnership to serve the growing demand for global e-commerce services by big multinational clients.
 
As part of the expansion, the Paris-based holding company’s digital shop Rosetta is extending its e-commerce operation globally. Revenues from Rosetta’s e-commerce unit have doubled in 2012 and are expected to triple in the next three years. Clients include Aldo, Chilean grocery chain Cencosud and Italian eyeware giant Luxottica.
 
Publicis will use IBM’s Smarter Commerce technology platform and IBM software to develop four commerce hubs around the globe that will be located in the U.S., Western Europe, China and Latin America. The agency’s deployment of the IBM tools, layered with its own approach to market, is designed to provide client CMOs and CIOs with enhanced ways to engage shoppers online.
 
By 2015, Publicis projects it will generate $390 million in e-commerce revenues from North America, $130 million from Western Europe, and $30 million each from China and Latin America.
 
“A key reason for Publicis Groupe’s acquisition of Rosetta was to continue to build technology-driven differentiation in the market,” stated Jean-Yves Naouri, COO at Publicis Groupe. “Our extended partnership is a clear statement of our ongoing confidence in Rosetta’s value proposition, centered on personalization and commerce.”
 
IBM is working with other agencies in the e-commerce area. In September, WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather struck a deal with the tech giant giving the agency access to a suite of analytics and cloud-based tools for its e-commerce operation eCommerce@Ogilvy.

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