RichRelevance Acquires Searchandise Commerce

Search is distinguishing factor in driving engagement for consumers on shopping sites, and the new combined media offering will drive increased conversion and sell-through for the world’s largest retailers and brands

San Francisco, CA – Dec. 12, 2011 –– RichRelevance today announced it has acquired Searchandise Commerce, the pioneer in retail search media. The acquisition expands RichRelevance’s monetization and award-winning Shopping Media capabilities to enable new strategies for reaching consumers with relevant brand advertising, deep in the purchase funnel on premium retail sites. RichRelevance currently serves more than 1.4 billion page views each month across its retail publishers and with the acquisition of Searchandise will now serve 10 of the 25 largest retailers on the web, including Target, Sears and others.

“Retailers are the trusted resource consumers count on in navigating the path to purchase and in this capacity are driving large volumes of traffic on the web today,” said David Selinger, CEO of RichRelevance. “We are dedicated to helping our retail partners make the most of this shopping traffic while innovating new ways for brand advertisers to reach consumers where, and when, it matters most.”

The Rise of Shopping Media

As consumers continue to go online to research and shop – the purchase of CPG products online is at a level of approximately $15 billion and growing at a rate of 10% versus a year ago (ComScore, March 2011) – retail sites have emerged as the most trusted advisors for product purchases and product discovery. Consumers rely on retail sites 25% more than search engines for product research (Forrester, 2010), and advertisers are increasingly investing in new ways to ensure that their brand is present in the digital aisle where decisions are being made.

Introduced by RichRelevance in December 2010, Shopping Media is used by world-class brands like Colgate, 3M, P&G, AT&T, Verizon, Toyota and Cisco to engage shoppers on the world’s largest retail sites with custom content while they are researching and purchasing products. This personalized advertising is tied directly to shoppers’ goals and behavior, and includes rich media integrated directly into personalized product recommendations and other custom advertising units.

The Most Comprehensive Solution for Retailer and Brands

Now, through the acquisition of Searchandise, RichRelevance is extending its Shopping Media offering to address all three ways that consumers navigate retail sites: keyword search, menu browse and personalized content such as recommendations. Through RichRelevance, brands who are experts at optimizing search and display in their digital mix can now take advantage of the full online media continuum on retail sites, including display media through integration within personalized product recommendation modules to pay-for-performance targeted search capabilities and browsing results.

This new capability significantly accelerates RichRelevance’s ability to provide value to both retailers and brands:

• By combining forces with Searchandise’s advertising offering that targets search and browse results, RichRelevance will effectively offer retailers the ability to monetize the entire scope of shopping sessions while giving brands unprecedented access to these moments that matter.

• The introduction of Searchandise’s core technology to the RichRelevance personalization platform will dramatically enhance and optimize the performance of search on retailer’s sites.
• Retailers add profit to their bottom line through the introduction of new brand advertising that enhances, instead of detracts from, the shopping experience.
• Brands gain a new channel to reach millions of active consumers as they research and shop – driving sales and engagement. RichRelevance will now provide a true one-stop media platform for brands and agencies to maximize their ad spend and consumer-reach within major retail sites.

“The advertising landscape is undergoing huge transformation, and retail sites have emerged as the most powerful digital publishing opportunity where brands can influence customer purchase intent,” said John Federman, former CEO of Searchandise and now advisor to RichRelevance. “Online advertisers utilize both display and pay-for-performance campaigns to best impact prospects and customers. We are extremely excited to join David and the team at RichRelevance in uniquely offering the most robust suite of retail monetization products to respond to our advertiser’s growing appreciation of the power of shopping media.”

Additional Resources

• Additional information on monetization for retailers can be found here: https://richrelevance.com/retailers/monetization/.
• Additional resources for Shopping Media for advertisers can be found here: https://richrelevance.com/advertisers/.

You can also connect with RichRelevance on Facebook and Twitter for updates and news.

AboutRichRelevance
RichRelevance powers personalized shopping experiences for the world’s largest and most innovative retail brands, including Walmart, Sears, Target and others. Founded and led by the e-commerce expert who helped pioneer personalization at Amazon.com, RichRelevance helps retailers increase sales and customer engagement by recommending the most relevant products to consumers regardless of the channel they are shopping. RichRelevance has delivered more than $3 billion in attributable sales for its retail clients to date, and is accelerating these results with the introduction of a new form of digital advertising called shopping media which allows manufacturers to engage shoppers where it matters most – in the digital aisles on the largest retail sites in world. RichRelevance is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Seattle, Boston and London.