Bloomreach, the platform fueling limitless e-commerce experiences, today announced new Bloomreach Discovery features and enhancements built to support B2B merchandisers, including new capabilities within group merchandising, SKU searchability, and facet enhancements. These features empower merchandisers with greater control as they optimize the e-commerce experience to match the needs of each user and each customer, across industries and locations. They add to countless merchandising features already available in Bloomreach Discovery, a solution that empowers merchandisers with a unique balance of AI and user control.

"We spend a lot of time delving into the unique challenges that B2B businesses encounter in the e-commerce landscape," said Jordan Roper, General Manager and Head of Product, Bloomreach Discovery. "For these businesses, discoverability is key. That's why we’re focused on enhancements to help our B2B merchandisers optimize the site experience and deliver exactly what buyers are looking for — as quickly and easily as possible."

The recently launched features and enhancements for Bloomreach Discovery offer more ways for merchandisers to increase discoverability for buyers. They include:

• Group merchandising: which improves product discoverability and drives conversions with the ability to merchandise groups of products based on any attribute, such as "manufacturer series," "finish" or "specification met." This expands the scope of Bloomreach’s previously launched dynamic grouping, allowing teams to merchandise the created groups.
• SKU searchability: which allows merchandisers to make product variants (such as finishes, sizes, and dimensions) searchable so that a buyer’s specific search delivers results with only those attributes, improving the time it takes to navigate large catalogs. This creates a more seamless buying journey and ultimately supports the acceleration of customer adoption of e-commerce.
• Facet enhancements: which gives merchandisers the ability to rank, reorder, and customize the display of number-facets, increasingly important for B2B shoppers, directly in their dashboard at global, search, and category levels to better match the specific needs of their buyers

First-of-its-kind forensic watermarking technology sets new data privacy standards; fosters stewardship and trust from within while enabling near-instant identification of insider threats

EchoMark, the company pioneering an unprecedented approach to information protection, announced today the public launch of its AI-driven solution to keep private information private. EchoMark automatically embeds invisible forensic watermarks in emails and documents, enabling source identification within minutes. As the first enterprise-grade software of its kind, EchoMark's invisible watermarking is a proactive deterrent against leaks.

EchoMark also announced a $10 million seed investment led by Craft Ventures, accelerating the company's mission to expand its forensic watermarking technologies across formats and workloads.

The frequency and severity of data breaches and leaks have undermined the bedrock of online communication, even within the world's most sophisticated organizations. Insider threat incidents surged 44% in the past two years with a single data breach now costing $4.45 million on average. According to Gartner®, by "2025, insider risk will cause 50% of organizations to adopt formal programs to manage it, up from 10% today."¹

"EchoMark is not just filling a critical and urgent market gap; we're creating a solution that never existed before," said Troy Batterberry, founder and CEO of EchoMark. "Communication is the foundation of any organization, and when people can't trust it, the entire structure crumbles and the external ramifications can be pervasive. Consider the Dobbs leak—a year, 126 formal interviews, and a 23-page investigative report later, the Supreme Court still can't locate the internal source, eroding trust from within and among citizens. EchoMark could have confidently identified the source in under five minutes. We're thrilled to officially bring these capabilities to organizations around the world."

EchoMark's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution redefines data security. It seamlessly safeguards information while promoting trust and enabling unrestricted collaboration for any organization. Using EchoMark is simple:

1. Deploy protection instantly–without interrupting anyone or anything: In less than five minutes, EchoMark can be deployed without any content disruption, end-user training, or manual inputs. It integrates seamlessly with major email systems (no client software needed) and operates silently in the background, injecting personalized forensic watermarks on emails and PDFs.
2. Customize privacy to enhance operations: EchoMark settings tailor the solution to diverse cohorts, use cases, and needs, promoting effective communication while safeguarding operations. For instance, in addition to invisible watermarking, an organization can activate visible watermarks to signify the technology's presence and further deter leaks, promoting internal stewardship and trust.
3. Identify the source within five minutes: By uploading compromised data and initiating the process, EchoMark's AI-powered forensic watermark technology rapidly and conclusively pinpoints potential insider threats and enables swift action. Through advanced natural language analysis and copy/paste detection, EchoMark achieves a near 100% accuracy rate in identifying inside threats, even in cases of document alterations, from screenshots to manual rewrites. EchoMark eliminates the need for protracted internal investigations.

Leading organizations, including the global auction house Christie's and the venture capital firm Craft Ventures, use EchoMark to protect and enhance their private communications.

"Christie's has long been committed to securing the privacy and protection of our clients' information," said Ben Gore, Chief Operating Officer at Christie's. "We are constantly in search of new and innovative technologies that can enhance our already robust protocols, and we are excited to explore the possibilities that EchoMark's solution offers."

"EchoMark's application of computer vision and perturbation technology is creating a new standard in information security," said Brian Murray, partner and Chief Operating Officer at Craft Ventures. "Companies and organizations gain precision visibility into their information security and bad actors are thwarted by a new, omniscient deterrent. It's an elegant application of new technology to solve one of the most vexing and expensive challenges facing the enterprise." 

Industry veteran joins SOCi to help boost online visibility for enterprises across the globe 

SOCi Inc., the leading CoMarketing Cloud Platform for multi-location enterprises, today announced Ed Calnan as the company's President and Chief Revenue Officer. As a three-time entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Seismic Software, Calnan will help drive SOCi's strategic growth initiatives and oversee its revenue-generating functions, as the six-time Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company honoree SOCi continues its impressive run as a premier marketing technology partner to some of the world's largest enterprise brands.

Calnan brings a wealth of experience to SOCi, having founded the $3B+ Unicorn Seismic, a leader in sales enablement and marketing orchestration technology, which he grew from $0 to over $300M in revenue with more than 1,500 employees, over 2,000 customers, and six acquisitions along the way. As President and CRO, Mr. Calnan will focus on expanding SOCi's market presence, building strategic partnerships, and driving revenue growth across the organization. His deep understanding of the digital and multi-location landscape, along with his passion for innovation, makes him an excellent fit for SOCi's mission to empower multi-location businesses to succeed in the digital era.

"We are thrilled to welcome Ed Calnan to the SOCi team as President and CRO. His leadership and experience will be instrumental in our continued growth and commitment to providing the most comprehensive and effective solutions for our clients," said Afif Khoury, Co-Founder and CEO of SOCi. "Ed shares our vision for SOCi, as we advance our technology platform to deliver a new category of CoMarketing solutions. We look forward to working closely with Ed as a strategic partner on this exciting journey together." 

No stranger to solving complex workflows and marketing problems for enterprises, Calnan was drawn to SOCi's AI-powered innovation like SOCi Genius that he believes will change the way people interact with software and allow marketers to spend more time doing what they love, versus being bogged down by the minutia of time-consuming tasks.

"The most important thing for multi-location businesses is how your customers find you, review you, and interact with you. SOCi has already done an excellent job of solving marketer pain points through AI-powered tools when it comes to managing this, and some of the most respected household names are already trusting and relying on the SOCi platform to boost customer satisfaction," said Ed Calnan, President and CRO of SOCi. "I was initially drawn to SOCi because of its people and its product, and I'm confident we can take this company to new heights and increase business performance for enterprises across the entire customer experience journey."

Calnan is looking forward to being a part of the JMI family once again, as the growth equity firm was an early investor in Seismic and is a significant investor in SOCi.

"SOCi has been incredibly successful in developing an industry-leading marketing platform for multi-location enterprises, and we recognize the critical role that visionary leadership plays in taking a software company to the next level," said Suken Vakil, General Partner at JMI Equity. "Based on Ed's impressive track record, we believe his strategic vision will be a driving force behind the company's continued success in the fast-changing martech landscape."

New model to provide enhanced accuracy and foresight for global market trends

IndexBox, a leading provider of market intelligence solutions, proudly announces the launch of its cutting-edge Predictive Model for its renowned Market Intelligence Platform. This innovative tool harnesses the power of machine learning and advanced analytics to offer more precise forecasts, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions with unparalleled confidence.

As global markets become more intricate and volatile, the demand for reliable and forward-looking intelligence has grown exponentially. Addressing this need, IndexBox's new Predictive Model not only provides insights into current market trends but also offers foresight into potential future shifts, enabling businesses to stay ahead of the curve.

Key Features of the New Predictive Model:

• Enhanced Forecasting Accuracy: Leveraging machine learning algorithms, the model refines its predictions with each data input, ensuring the most accurate market forecasts available.
• Customizable Parameters: Users can adjust various parameters to suit their specific requirements, obtaining tailor-made insights for their unique business context.
• Real-time Data Integration: By continuously incorporating real-time data, the model adapts to the dynamic nature of global markets, ensuring forecasts remain relevant and actionable.
• User-friendly Interface: Designed with the user in mind, the platform's intuitive dashboard makes it easy for professionals at all tech levels to extract valuable insights without a steep learning curve.

Aleksandr Romanenko, founder and CEO at IndexBox, commented, "In this rapidly changing market landscape, businesses need tools that don't just reflect the present but can also anticipate the future. Our new Predictive Model is a testament to our commitment to equip businesses with top-tier, forward-looking market intelligence."

This rollout reinforces IndexBox's position at the forefront of market intelligence innovation. The platform's subscribers can now access the Predictive Model as part of their existing subscription, providing an immediate boost to their market analysis capabilities.

New Amplifier helps retailers boost competitive differentiation and speed up storefront performance without sacrificing quality, launched to coincide with Peak season preparations

Amplience, the AI Content company, has today announced the launch of Accelerated Media, its new image and video optimization Amplifier feature. Built on top of its enterprise-scale digital asset management (DAM) platform, Accelerated Media delivers a fast route for retailers to increase their competitive edge and elevate the consumer experience.

As retailers put in place preparations for this year's Peak season, they are looking for solutions that can deliver superior digital experiences by significantly reducing page loading times leading to higher SEO rankings and improved conversion rates. Accelerated Media meets those needs. Building upon Amplience's Smart Images service, the new solution supports the latest media codecs, offering the most efficient file formats available to optimise page load times without sacrificing quality.

"We know from research that an eCommerce site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds, and lower file sizes directly correspond to page load," said John Williams, CTO at Amplience. "Retailers can expect a 50% reduction in file size using AVIF files through the new Accelerated Media solution vs JPEG, and a 20% reduction for AVIF vs WebP. These significant reductions are not just restricted to images: video file sizes using VP9 and H265 will also be reduced by 40%, and retailers will be able to deliver the same perceptual quality compared to previously supported formats." 

Accelerated Media features real-time processing with intentionally set guardrails which balance file size and speed. This allows high performing image types to be selected without compromising on perceptual quality or page load times.

"At the most pressurised time of the year during Peak, every millisecond counts to outperform competitors," said Williams. "Accelerated Media is positioned to improve SEO by responding to search engines that prioritize user experience and favour faster-loading sites. Higher rankings increase visibility and organic traffic, and sites that load quickly receive lower bounce rates and more transactions."

Amplience has designed Accelerated Media to offer fast gains with minimal changes. Customers can purchase the Amplifier directly from Amplience and, if they are already using Smart Images, take advantage of the new codecs immediately. Amplience customers not using Smart Images will need a small front-end development change for the solution to take effect. 

Results: 33% Improved CPCs for Advertisers and 26% Improved CPMs for Publishers

1st Party Data Outperforms Both Cookie and Non-Cookie Buys

TripleLift, the ad tech platform elevating digital advertising across every screen, today released the industry's first-ever large-scale test results showing that its recently launched first-party data targeting solution is effective across the web, including in cookie-constrained environments. Results show the offering massively improved outcomes for both advertisers and publishers when a third-party cookie was not available.

The solution, called TripleLift Audiences, is particularly effective in addressing nearly half of the internet that already functions without cookies, and creates a way forward as the industry prepares for further addressability outages in 2024. Currently, 47% of global ad requests are occurring in cookie-free environments. Once Google deprecates third-party cookie usage across its Chrome browser ecosystem, which is set to start in January 2024, estimates suggest that about 90% of the open web will be unaddressable in this manner.

"We have been discussing the coming cookie-pocalypse as an industry, but often forget that almost half the internet is already unaddressable. This is a boiling the frog moment happening right before our eyes," said Ed Dinichert, Chief Revenue Officer at TripleLift. "While many ideas have been proposed, there has never been concrete results showing that any one of them can address deprecation at scale – until now. This solution is effective for advertisers today."

ADVERTISER RESULTS

The results, delivered in partnership with a major global consumer electronics advertiser, showed improved performance for impressions enriched with publisher first-party data. The advertiser achieved 33% lower cost-per-click when compared to impressions without 1st party data, but with a mix of third-party cookies and no cross domain identifiers. The test was conducted at scale, with 230 million impressions delivered and analyzed.

"First-party publisher data is underutilized in the programmatic ecosystem," said Airey Baringer, VP Product Management at TripleLift. "TripleLift Audiences enables easy activation of first-party data to improve targeting on every impression, with or without third-party cookies. The data is superior and outcomes are improved for both publishers and advertisers."

HOW PUBLISHER FIRST-PARTY DATA WORKS

Since launching in June of this year, several brands and agencies have been running paid campaigns using TripleLift Audiences first-party data segments. Instead of dropping a cookie on users and following them around the web, this solution builds curated segments using the publisher's data as a way of identifying and reaching audiences on their own websites. With more than 10,000 sites already opted-in, this approach to quality targeting addresses 30 billion daily ad impressions across 800 contextual and behavioral audience segments – all without the use of third-party cookies.

PUBLISHER RESULTS

Publishers also saw improvement in the test, with CPMs increasing by 26%. Since TripleLift Audiences allows publishers to monetize content that has become untargetable through third-party cookie deprecation, they are now able to re-offer those impressions through first-party data targeting.

"TripleLift Audiences has enabled us to drive greater monetization of our inventory, putting more money into the pockets of the 5,000+ creators and publishers we work with – and first-party data is unlocking that opportunity," said Paul Bannister, Chief Strategy Officer at Raptive. "This presents a big advantage for us and other publishers in the ecosystem, and we're excited to be at the forefront of testing these new cookie alternatives."

TripleLift has been able to make this offering possible for two reasons. First: it leveraged its 2022 acquisition of Zurich-based DMP 1plusX, to create the framework of sophisticated technology, data protection, and privacy standards necessary to form an actionable approach to first-party data segmentation. Second: it turned to its trusted relationships with publishers, built over a decade, offering integrated native ad products.

"This is a win-win for the programmatic ecosystem," Baringer of TripleLift. "Publishers win because they monetize more of their inventory, leading to higher effective CPMs. Advertisers win because they can target more efficiently without third-party cookies, leading to lower CPCs and improved efficiency against all post-click metrics."

TripleLift Audiences is now available for both advertisers and publishers in the United States and will be rolling out to European markets in 2024.

Bringing Ideas to Life: From Concept to Completion with a Single Platform

Lucihub, the award-winning AI-powered video production platform and mobile app is set to redefine the video production paradigm. Today, the company announced the launch of Lucihub Butterfly, the AI-powered assistant creative director designed to streamline the video creation process from concept to completion.

This innovative product leverages the capabilities of multiple AI platform services, enabling users to swiftly convert their ideas into gripping scripts, precise shot lists, and vivid visual storyboards.

Our goal is to make the video creation process as simple and efficient as possible, and I believe with the addition of Lucihub Butterfly, we've achieved this. With Lucihub Butterfly, users have the power and expertise of an entire production team right at their fingertips. It's not just about creating videos; it's about crafting stories that resonate," said Amer Tadayon, CEO of Lucihub.

Lucihub Butterfly is the latest addition to the Lucihub platform and seamlessly integrates with its video production cloud. When it's time to bring your vision to life, use your smartphone to film your scenes, and then upload and receive a professionally edited video within hours.

• commercetools Connect makes it easier to instantly add new components, allowing businesses to accelerate new features to market and enhance both the customer and merchant experience.

• Now available to customers everywhere, this is the latest innovation in commercetools' product suite following commercetools Checkout and its expansion of commercetools Composable Commerce in mainland China.

commercetools, the global leader in composable commerce, today unveiled commercetools Connect to make it easier than ever for businesses to integrate new components into the commercetools Composable Commerce platform. The new addition to commercetools' product suite enables businesses to launch new integrations of 'best of breed' components in a matter of minutes.

"Connect is a remarkable asset for commercetools merchants and their customers," said Mike Parker, Senior Director of Solution Architecture at Klaviyo. "The new offering removes devops headaches related to infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and maintenance, and makes it possible to go live with an integration in minutes. What's more, it does all that while preserving a merchant's ability to make code-level customizations if needed."

Beyond speed to market, Connect entirely takes care of integrations hosting, maintenance, execution, monitoring, and security for businesses, allowing them to focus on core business innovations. With guaranteed uptime SLAs of 99.9% for all connectors and regular scans for stability and security, businesses significantly reduce technical and operational risk.

"At commercetools, we're all about making every aspect of the merchant and customer experience easier and faster. Our composable commerce enables exceptional flexibility and scale, as well as tight integration with both businesses' existing infrastructure and a wide range of best-of-breed commerce solutions," said Mike Sharp, Chief Product Officer at commercetools. "Connect makes that integration even easier, bringing additional operational efficiencies and enabling composable commerce to be incorporated faster than ever."

Bloomreach, FluentCommerce, Fulfillment Tools, Klaviyo, Marketplacer, NewStore, Talon. One, TrustElevate, and Voucherify are a select few of the partner integrations that are available through commercetools Connect.