Two of the largest personalization vendors are joining forces.
Today, ecommerce platform provider Kibo Software Inc. announced it will acquire personalization and testing vendor Monetate for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition will give Kibo’s customers access to Monetate’s testing and optimization software, such as A/B testing, content personalization and audience building and targeting. The acquisition will allow Kibo to provide a “holistic suite of solutions” to its clients, said Kibo CEO David Post in a press release announcing the acquisition.
“Through the combination of Certona and Monetate, we’ve created the leading personalization engine in the market, which will enable retailers to make the most of customer intent-driven data, deliver exceptional content experiences, and measure incrementality to optimize customer lifetime value at scale,” he said.
In addition, Monetate’s clients will have access to Kibo’s order management system, cloud ecommerce software and software from its previous acquisition of personalization and search vendor Certona Corp. Monetate will continue to operate under its name and offer its stand-alone products, says Meyar Sheik, president and chief commerce officer at Kibo.
In February, Kibo acquired Certona. Since that acquisition, Kibo has had the most personalization clients in Internet Retailer’s Top 1000 of any other vendor in the Top 1000, with 83 Top 1000 clients totaling $52.46 billion in sales. Monetate has 80 Top 1000 retailer clients with web sales totaling $39.34 billion, according to Internet Retailer’s soon-to-be-released Leading Vendors Report.
The plan is to bring Monetate into Kibo’s cloud commerce platform so data can easily be shared within the software and “to harmonize the user interface and experience,” Sheik says.
How Kibo integrates the technologies together will be key to its success, says Arthur McManus, chief technology officer at ecommerce consultancy FitForCommerce, which has worked with both vendors.
“The combination of Certona and Monetate at Kibo is the literal definition of doubling down on personalization, which is now the table stake and competitive differentiator for brands and retailers wanting to serve the customer,” McManus says.
Kibo has more than 600 B2B and retailer clients that use any of its services, including its ecommerce platform fulfillment software and order managing software.
Kibo itself is a result of several mergers and acquisitions. Private equity firm Vista Equity Partners formed Kibo when it combined three companies—MarketLive Inc., Shopatron and Fiverun—in January 2016. Vista had acquired ecommerce platform provider MarketLive and order-fulfillment software firm Shopatron for an undisclosed price in late 2015 and then bought mobile point-of-sale vendor Fiverun. Kibo acquired personalization provider Baynote Inc. in September 2016.
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