CRM & Customer Experience Archives • Page 8 of 12 • SAP.iO

SAP.iO In Bangalore, CRM & Customer Experience, Announcements

Vonage : Adds Conversational Commerce Solution To Its Product Portfolio With Acquisition Of Jumper.ai

Vonage, a global leader in cloud communications helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation, today announced that it has acquired Jumper.ai, a Singapore-based leader in omnichannel conversational commerce solutions.

Jumper.ai’s team will join Vonage’s Product and Engineering group. With this acquisition, Vonage gains significant technology and developer-focused talent, as well as expertise in conversational commerce, complementing the programmable, flexible and intelligent capabilities of its singular Vonage Communications Platform and robust portfolio of APIs.

Conversational commerce is an in-demand retail trend that capitalizes on the growing convergence of shopping and conversations on platforms such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram, using the chat feature to create a seamless shopping experience. Consumers can engage in personal conversations to inquire about product and pricing information and build trusted relationships with retailers.

The Jumper.ai platform creates omnichannel, messaging-first customer engagement and shopping journeys across social, messaging, and web (WhatsApp, Messenger, Apple Business Chat, Instagram, Twitter, SMS, LINE, Google Ads, Brand websites, and more). According to an April 2021 Conversational Commerce forecast by Juniper Research¹, the total addressable market in this space will be worth $27 billion by 2025¹. As social messaging becomes more important to consumers across the globe as a quick and direct way of connecting with their favorite brands, Vonage will incorporate Jumper.ai technology to expand its total addressable market and complement its robust portfolio of APIs with a packaged AI-enabled conversational commerce offering.

LISNR Customer Connect Now Available on SAP® Store

LISNR today announced that its LISNR Customer Connect solution is now available on SAP® Store, the online marketplace for SAP and their partner offerings. LISNR’s Customer Connect merchant wallet solution utilizes near field ultrasonic with SAP Commerce to deliver a way for attendants to easily connect on-premise customers to their digital profiles.

SAP Store, found at store.sap.com, delivers a simplified and connected digital customer experience for finding, trying, buying and renewing more than 1,800 solutions from SAP and its partners. There, customers can find the SAP solutions and SAP-validated solutions they need to grow their business. And for each purchase made through SAP Store, SAP will plant a tree.

Social commerce examples: The power of social influence for online selling

In-app purchasing on social media is convenient. Not only do you have access to millions of potential customers, you can sell to them without disrupting their social experience. That’s the main advantage.

However, this benefit also has a downside. Are consumers truly looking to shop when on social media? One would argue that higher shopping intent would exist in the actual online store. On social media, people are generally looking to connect with friends and family, hear about the latest news, watch humorous and/or inspiring videos, and gain initial top-of-funnel interest in products that would lead them to enter a shopping environment, the online store.

Wisy is now an SAP Silver Partner

Wisy announced today that it has achieved SAP silver partner status in the SAP® PartnerEdge® program. This is a clear indication of the high level of quality Wisy provides to businesses using SAP solutions.

According to Wisy´s CEO Min Chen,”Wisy’s artificial intelligence combined with SAP technology is a powerful solution to help consumer products companies improve on-shelf-availability and reduce out-of-stocks with real-time factual data from any point-of-sale. The SAP and Wisy partnership enables companies to modernize their retail execution capabilities unlocking next-level data, analytics, and automation to future-proof their business.”

Mercaux omnichannel research shows changing role of physical stores

A new report from Mercaux explores the changing role of the store and flags up the importance of capturing customer behaviours, now perceived as just as vital as selling products in bricks and mortar retail.

Research was carried out across 200 retailers (by Censuswide) and 2,000 UK consumers.

“It’s clear from our report that the retail industry is still in its infancy of digital transformation, but I’m buoyed by the progress that has been made in such a short period of time since stores reopened to the public,” says Olga Kotsur, CEO and Co-Founder, Mercaux.

“The role of the store has changed – it is no longer perceived as a simple sales channel, but instead a multi-purpose omnichannel centre.”

“What the findings confirm for me is that retailers have been busy setting the foundations of digital success – particularly during the past 18 months – by upgrading their existing and implementing new age backend systems, such as OMS.”

“They now find themselves at the next stage, on the very cusp of a digital transformation wave, finally allowing us to achieve our connected omnichannel retail aspirations. Exciting times ahead!”

Wise Systems Raises $50 Million in Series C Financing

Wise Systems announced it has raised $50 million in Series C financing led by Tiger Global Management with participation from new and existing investors that include Section 32, Valo Ventures, Gradient Ventures, and Prologis Ventures.

Wise Systems’ real-time, automated system powers delivery and service operations with drivers worldwide across the last-mile industry. The company will use the financing to further accelerate product development, market expansion across key geographies, and address the increasing global demand for the company’s next-generation dispatching and routing solutions.

“The last-mile industry has undergone radical transformation over the last five years, driven by a combination of technology, customer appetite, and disruptive newcomers like Wise Systems,” said Chazz Sims, CEO and co-founder of Wise Systems. “With this latest round of funding, we’re excited to invest further in our business and continue to push the boundaries of innovation and customer experience, embedding machine learning and AI in service of automation, efficiency and carbon reduction.”

A leader in AI technology for last-mile delivery operations, Wise Systems saw significant growth over the two past years, growing 300% year-over-year, experiencing increased demand for the company’s autonomous dispatch and routing technology across a number of markets. Today’s announcement comes on the heels of other significant developments for Wise Systems this year, including the availability of its platform in the SAP App Store and its launch in Japan. In July, Wise Systems announced a partnership with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), under the umbrella of Daimler Trucks Asia (DTA), to offer the company’s AI-driven routing and dispatch software to MFTBC customers in Japan. The partnership extends Wise Systems’ reach to the commercial vehicle industry in Japan, one of the busiest last-mile markets in the world.

SundaySky Video Experience Creator Now Available on SAP® Store

SundaySky video platform delivers 20-30% engagement improvement, deepens customer relationships through integration with SAP Commerce Cloud

SundaySky, an SAP^® silver partner and leader in video experiences, announced that the SundaySky Video Experience Creator is now available on SAP Store, the online marketplace for SAP and partner offerings. Customers using SundaySky can now accelerate video content velocity, as well as deploy data-driven contextual and relevant experiences on SAP Commerce Cloud sites and via email to outperform acquisition, retargeting, upsell, and loyalty goals. The SundaySky Video Platform is fully integrated with the SAP Commerce Cloud solution. Additionally, data from SAP Customer Data Cloud or core data services can be leveraged for video personalization with SundaySky’s native data connectors.

Too Good To Go Celebrates 1 Year Fighting Food Waste in the U.S.

Too Good To Go, the tech-for-good company powering the world’s #1 anti-food waste app, today celebrates its first anniversary in the U.S. and the impact it’s had fighting food waste across the country, from New York City, Washington, D.C. and Chicago to Austin, San Francisco and Seattle. Via the Too Good To Go app, available for iOS in the Apple store or Google Play for Android, the company has successfully connected millions of Americans with surplus from local restaurants, bakeries, cafes and grocery stores so delicious food doesn’t go to waste, or further contribute to the climate crisis.

The newest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released last month, called attention to a shocking reality of the climate crisis, notably that food waste now contributes to 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions—up from 8% in years prior. With this in mind, Americans now have an easy way to take action against food waste through the Too Good To Go app. In just one short year in the U.S., over 1.5 million Americans and 5,000 food businesses have downloaded the app, and collectively saved over 800,000 meals – the carbon footprint equivalent to 394 flights around the world.

“The U.S. has really embraced our super simple concept for saving surplus food, to the point where we’ve never seen this amount of impact and growth in a new market this quickly,” said Lucie Basch, Co-founder of Too Good To Go. “We’re so excited to bring our solution to even more U.S. cities in the coming months and we can’t wait to see what next year holds.”

Wisy participates in a “Shark Tank” in Las Vegas and wins audience award

Min Chen, CEO of Wisy, presented before a panel of experts at the “Shark Reef” Startup Pitch, the premier event for the consumer goods and retail industry. Wisy won the Audience Choice award given by the audience to the Startup that presents the best solution to the needs of companies in the consumer product good industry and supermarkets. The event organizers selected Wisy for being a resilient, agile, and visionary company.

MarTech Interview with Ajay Khanna, Chief Marketing Officer at Explorium

Ajay Khanna, Chief Marketing Officer at Explorium highlights more on how B2B marketing will continue to be more data-driven, requiring marketers to focus on multiple data signals and data points to drive better marketing success.

You’ve recently taken over as CMO at Explorium, we’d love to hear more about your role here and what are some of the key marketing aspects you’re first focusing on to deepen optimization (like, hiring, improving/enhancing the martech stack?!)

Explorium offers a unique platform in the data space. It provides an External Data Platform that automatically discovers thousands of relevant data signals and uses them to improve analytics and machine learning. I’ve spent my last seven-plus years working with data products and was amazed by what Explorium has developed. So I joined the team to take this fantastic product to the market and help grow and scale the company.

The company was recently named a Cool Vendor by Gartner and the Next Billion Dollar Startup by Forbes and we want to keep this growth momentum going. The initial marketing initiatives were building the right team for product marketing, demand generation, digital, content, putting the right processes in place, and building the right tech stack that will help us scale.

How have you seen B2B /tech digital marketing technologies and digital marketing trends evolve during this time in the industry?

Yes, marketing has evolved considerably since I first started in this field. It has become much more data-driven, technology-enabled, and process-oriented. Having the right tools and processes that can help you quickly test your hypothesis and execute your ideas is critical. Speed is essential, and agility is a must. Especially during the last year, marketers had to devise new messaging and find new ways to connect to their customers. Being responsive in the fast-changing market was very important. The shift to digital technologies also became critical as in-person events and meet-ups were not possible. We have learned newer ways to connect with and serve customers in the last year because of access to the right data and digital technologies.

Read more of the interview here

SAP.iO In Portfolio News, CRM & Customer Experience

Constructor finds $55M for tech that powers search and discovery for e-commerce businesses

One of the biggest problems in the world of e-commerce is the predicament of shopping cart abandonment: when shoppers aren’t getting to what they want fast enough — whether it’s finding the right item, or paying for it in a quick and easy way — they bounce. That singular problem is driving a wave of technology development to make the experience ever more seamless, and today one of the companies closely involved in that space is announcing some funding on the back of healthy growth.

Constructor, which has built technology that powers search and product discovery tools for e-commerce businesses, has picked up $55 million in a Series A round of funding. Constructor says that it powers “billions” of queries every month, with revenues growing 233% in the last year. Customers it works with include Sephora, Walmart’s Bonobos, Backcountry and many other big names.

Zippin Raises $30M to Drive Adoption of Frictionless Checkout

Checkout-free technology provider Zippin has closed a $30 million Series B funding round with participation from new and existing investors that include OurCrowd, Maven Ventures, Evolv Ventures and SAP. The new round brings Zippin’s total funding to more than $45 million.

This follows Zippin’s significant progress in recent months, including signing numerous new accounts, launching multiple new public checkout-free stores and further solidifying its leading technology within the future of retail, according to the company.

The company currently powers checkout-free stores across four continents in formats such as convenience stores, grocery stores, sports stadiums, hotels and residential buildings. With this funding round, Zippin expects to scale its checkout-free platform and power tens of thousands of stores by 2025.

“Zippin has seen increased demand and rapid adoption of checkout-free technology during the pandemic,” said Krishna Motukuri, Zippin co-founder and CEO. “Shoppers want contactless experiences everywhere they go. As retailers realize that frictionless checkout-free technology is also contactless by design, they see a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. With a checkout-free platform like Zippin, retailers can offer shoppers what they are looking for today, and future-proof their business, both at the same time.”

Q&A: Andy Cockburn, CEO and Co-Founder, Mention Me

Andy Cockburn is CEO and Co-Founder of Mention Me, the Referral Engineering™ platform for growth-obsessed ecommerce brands. Since co-founding the business with Tim Boughton in 2013, he’s scaled it to employ more than 90 Referral Experts who have delivered more than 4 million referrals totalling £1bn in revenue for clients.

Prior to Mention Me, Andy was the UK Managing Director of HomeAway, the world’s largest market-place for holiday rentals (that floated on the NASDAQ for $3bn), and formerly the founder and CEO of Wigadoo, a technology start-up in the social payment space.

He has an MBA from INSEAD and MA from Cambridge University.

Cashierless checkout company Zippin raises $30M

The cashierless technology shift continues apace with today’s news that Zippin has raised $30 million in a series B round of funding. The San Francisco-based company is one of several players in the space to gain traction for a technology that seeks to not only make supermarket queues obsolete, but also generate big data insights for retailers.

Founded in 2018, Zippin leverages AI, cameras, and smart shelf sensors to enable shoppers to place items in their cart and walk out without waiting. The company opened its first checkout-free store in San Francisco back in 2018, and it has since entered into partnerships with the likes of Aramark, Sberbank, and the Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center to power cashierless stores globally.

The Business of Marketing Featuring Diane Keng CEO & Founder of Breinify

In this Business of Marketing podcast we hear from Diane Keng who is the CEO & Founder of Breinify who will provide an inside look at their platform that helps enterprise brands collect data and create personalized digital experiences for their consumers and how SAP.iO was imperative to their growth.

Listen here….