• by Ray Schultz , April 20, 2022

Merkle has announced the formal launch of its Experience & Commerce practice, a global team of 2,500 experts supported by 14,000 technologists, strategists and analysts, that has been helping clients with CX, technology, commerce, digital messaging, loyalty and promotions. 

The launch completes a multi-year strategy and investment plan that has united blue-infinity and eCommera in Europe, Bluecom in Asia, Davanti in New Zealand, and DEG and LiveArea in North America, Merkle says.   

Merkle -- densu’s customer experience management company -- says it will now be better positioned to compete with the top global agencies, consultancies, and system integrators. 

Among other things, the de facto practice has deployed more than 40 billion emails over the past 15+ years, and managed more than 100 million loyalty memberships in over 40 countries. 

This makes Merkle a major world email sender in the face of steady consolidation of email suppliers. 

As part of the launch, Michael McLaren has been named global Experience & Commerce lead, replacing Pete Stein in this assignment. Stein had been named President, Merkle Americas. McLaren will also continue as global CEO of Merkle B2B, a role he has held since 2016.  

“As one integrated team, we will continue our charter to support Merkle’s strategy of providing world-class, turnkey experience and commerce solutions in the markets we serve, both domestically and worldwide,” McLaren says. 

In addition, Merkle has named Jim Butler -- formerly president at LiveArea -- as Experience & Commerce lead for Merkle Americas.

McLaren and Butler will collaborate with regional CXM experts like Martin Bochineck in EMEA and Patrick Deloy in APAC.  

Merkle claims numerous global client relationships with Fortune 500 brands.