Retail and eCommerce highlights last week include: Research by Storyblok reveals nearly one in four shoppers are actively put off purchasing a product if endorsed by influencers. Ricoh UK has partnered with Feefo to fund tree-planting projects in return for honest customer reviews. Feefo is the world’s largest verified reviews provider. Coldwater Creek, a leading specialty retailer of women’s apparel, has launched a new eCommerce site on the BigCommerce platform. Software AG is selling webMethods and StreamSets – its Super iPaaS business – to IBM for €2.13 billion. The sale is subject to customary closing adjustments, including regulatory approvals.
Salesforce to buy Spiff
Salesforce has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Spiff, a provider of a new class of incentive compensation management (ICM) software that combines an intuitive low-code UI, the familiarity of a spreadsheet, and a powerful processing engine to drive commissions automation at scale.
After the acquisition closes, the Spiff organisation will join Sales Cloud, working to enhance Salesforce’s Sales Performance Management solutions by providing customers with a trusted platform to increase visibility, supercharge selling & unlock growth.
The addition of Spiff to Salesforce will empower CROs to better align with financial and sales operations teams to easily self-manage complex incentive compensation plans and understand the factors propelling revenue performance to drive top-line growth.
Spiff is available on the Salesforce AppExchange and has partnered with Salesforce for years. More than 70% of Spiff’s customers use Sales Cloud as their CRM. Spiff is also a Salesforce Ventures portfolio company.
Salesforce looks forward to welcoming the Spiff team to the Salesforce family once the acquisition closes, which is expected to occur in the first quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2025, subject to customary closing conditions.
This transaction does not result in any change to Salesforce’s current financial guidance previously provided on November 29, 2023, and we will not be disclosing any further financial details.
inriver joins the MACH Alliance
inriver is now a certified member of the MACH Alliance, the global community dedicated to shaping the future of enterprise technology. inriver’s entrance into the Alliance caps a pivotal year for inriver as it continues to solve the evolving demands of commerce with a new breed of PIM to power the entire product journey.
Increased customer needs and ongoing regulations – such as the EU’s Digital Product Passports – require enterprises to prioritise sustainable and transparent manufacturing practices, increasing the necessity for more product information. inriver’s new breed of PIM is an industry-leading, multi-tenant SaaS solution for large enterprises that address these growing demands, with built-in digital shelf analytics, integration and syndication capabilities, connecting digital ecosystems with flexibility and ease.
MACH-certified members carry the stamp of approval buyers need to help them build a guaranteed future-proof tech stack. All members of the MACH Alliance must meet a stringent set of certification standards and remain in compliance to display the MACH Certified seal.
Further, in 2022 inriver achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, which is an auditing procedure developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the highest level of requirements within the industry to further protect and secure customer data and the availability of its product. SOC 2 Type 2 is an auditing procedure highly adopted by cloud-based service providers and ensures inriver’s customers can focus on driving revenue with peace of mind and confidence in the security of their data.
Blackthorn.io launches Blackthorn Industries – A new initiative to align with Salesforce industries
Blackthorn.io, maker of applications for transacting on the Salesforce platform, has launched Blackthorn Industries, a venture to better align with Salesforce Industries.
Blackthorn focuses on: Education, Field Service, Healthcare, Nonprofit, and Public Sector. Blackthorn is SOC 2, GDPR, and PCI compliant, works with Salesforce Government Cloud Plus, and is AWS Government Cloud ready.
Starting with Education, Blackthorn.io will be tying their applications to each object model across unique and shared industry cloud components. For example, Program Enrollments and Benefit Sessions may have implications with Events or Storefront purchases, or when a student attends a campus tour, the school may want to see this attendance on the student’s “Timeline.”
To illuminate the industry-specific offerings, Blackthorn.io has launched dedicated industry web pages served by Blackthorn Industries.
Tokens.com launch eCommerce App on Google Play and Apple iOS Stores
Tokens.com Corp., a company that builds web3 businesses and owns an inventory of digital assets, has launched Valor, a proprietary eCommerce platform within Metaverse Group that allows product placement and advertising within virtual gaming worlds, including Roblox and Fortnite.
Metaverse Group has spent the last year developing Helix Worlds, the technology that powers the Valor app. Valor is designed as a loyalty program that gives its clients the ability to place branded product placement in games like Roblox and Fortnite. Players in these environments use the app by scanning branded items and are redirected to the brand’s page to claim offers and earn points that are redeemable for rewards.
Imagine a gamer walking through a virtual city and encountering your brand’s latest sneaker collection or wearable tech gadget right within the metaverse. With just 2-3 taps on their mobile device or Helix Worlds compatible apps and or via VR Goggles, players can interact with the product, purchase it in the physical world, and earn exclusive in-game rewards.
The consumer eCommerce experience has not changed substantially in the last 20 years. However, with the advent and popularity of new 3D platforms such as Roblox and Fortnite, brands are seeking innovative ways to evolve their eCommerce solutions. Through Helix Worlds, brands have the unprecedented opportunity to place their products into games and 3D environments without breaking the immersive experience and breaking platform guidelines. Valor using Helix Worlds technology, was innovated for brands to market their products to a new audience and for consumers to enjoy an improved shopping experience. Helix Worlds can be implemented into any app and will be available across multiple platforms and popular games.
TSB launches a new rewards portal offering customers discounts and savings
TSB has launched a new customer rewards portal offering customers discounts and savings across a number of retail products and services. The new portal, My TSB Rewards, will be available to customers in the TSB Mobile Banking app and internet banking – rewarding them with offers and discounts when banking with TSB. My TSB Rewards builds on a range of provider offers that have already been introduced to customers including Wealthify, ApTap, Snugg, Booking.com and others.
