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Category: Marketing & e-commerce (Page 1 of 78)

Verndale acquires the Product Experience Division of Amp

January 22, 2026 /

Verndale, a digital experience and technology company, today announced the acquisition of the Product Experience Division of Amp, from Advantage Solutions. They will operate as Verndale as part of the acquisition.

The move is to Verndale’s position as a modern growth partner, expanding its ability to take brands from initial concept to fully built digital products, and continuously optimize them for measurable business impact.

The Product Experience Division of Amp is known for combining its product design, UX, engineering and digital marketing capabilities via an embedded approach to building digital product experiences for global brands across tech, CPG, healthcare, and consumer industries. The team brings deep capabilities in product strategy, rapid prototyping, product development, and ongoing management through SEO, analytics, and experimentation.

The acquisition strengthens Verndale’s ability to support the full lifecycle of digital experience, from ideation and UX through engineering, activation, and ongoing product management. It also expands Verndale’s reach into growth-minded verticals such as technology and CPG, where brands increasingly expect partners to blend product development with performance marketing and experience optimization.

This acquisition reflects Verndale’s continued investment in building a next-generation digital experience platform, combining product, UX, engineering, data, and marketing capabilities into a single, accountable partner.

https://www.verndale.com/about-us/news/verndale-acquires-product-experience-division-of-amp

Algolia and Microsoft collaborate on retail experiences

January 12, 2026 /

Algolia, an AI Search and Retrieval Platform, today announced a collaboration with Microsoft to provide retailers and brands with greater influence, accuracy, and visibility in AI-driven shopping experiences. The collaboration integrates Algolia’s real-time enriched product attributes (product data, inventory availability, and product pricing) into Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Bing Shopping, and Microsoft Edge, to help retailers ensure their products appear correctly and competitively across emerging AI discovery surfaces.   

Algolia customers gain greater influence over how their products are represented across Microsoft digital sites. Retailers benefit from enhanced brand control and stronger context awareness within Copilot, Bing Shopping, and Edge, backed by fresher, deeper, and more accurate product data.  

AI-driven discovery becomes shoppable through real-time, retailer-approved data, giving merchants influence over external, “off property” AI surfaces. Retailers can now extend their merchandising strategies into LLM environments that were previously inaccessible. 

Algolia, with the help of Microsoft, is address critical gaps in agentic commerce, more dynamic product storytelling, and deeper insights into how products perform across Microsoft experiences for richer reporting and retail media measurement. 

https://www.algolia.com/about/news/algolia-collaborates-with-microsoft-to-drive-real-time-product-data-to-shopping-experiences

Microsoft announces agentic AI capabilities for retail

January 8, 2026 /

Microsoft announced a set of agentic AI capabilities aimed at supporting automation and decision-making across retail operations, including merchandising, marketing, store operations, and fulfillment. The tools are designed to connect data and workflows so teams can act on context in real time.

Copilot Checkout, now available in the U.S. on Copilot.com, allows shoppers to complete purchases directly within Copilot without being redirected to a retailer’s website, while merchants remain the merchant of record. The service integrates with partners including PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe, and supports participating retailers such as Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Ashley Furniture, and Etsy sellers.

Microsoft also introduced Brand Agents for Shopify merchants and a personalized shopping agent template in Copilot Studio. These tools enable conversational shopping experiences using a retailer’s product catalog, with options ranging from turnkey deployment to fully customizable implementations.

In public preview, a catalog enrichment agent template automates product onboarding and categorization by extracting attributes from images and enriching data for search and recommendations.

For physical stores, a store operations agent template provides natural-language access to inventory, policies, and operational insights, helping staff manage workflows, staffing, and day-to-day decisions using internal and external data signals.

https://news.microsoft.com/source/2026/01/08/microsoft-propels-retail-forward-with-agentic-ai-capabilities-that-power-intelligent-automation-for-every-retail-function

Bloomreach launches Personalized Media in-Grid

November 13, 2025 /

Bloomreach, an agentic platform for personalization, introduced Personalized Media in-Grid, a new capability that turns static product grids into intelligent storytelling surfaces, powered by its AI-powered search solution Bloomreach Discovery and amplified through its marketing and conversational shopping solutions. The feature transforms product-listing pages into dynamic, story-driven experiences, showcasing Bloomreach’s connected suite. Personalized Media in-Grid brings the compound value of the platform to life, uniting placement, personalization, and conversation inside the shopping journey.

Today’s product-listing pages are largely static and transactional. Personalized Media in-Grid changes that by allowing retailers to insert videos, images, buying guides, seasonal promotions, and cross-sell messages between products on search and category pages. With slot selection, in-context preview, audience targeting, and scheduling capabilities, merchandising teams can manage and optimize content, and

  • Blend storytelling with commerce: Insert rich media, buying guides, promotional banners, and cross-sell content directly into product grids at specific slots.
  • Manage content: Apply rules globally across queries or categories, preview in context, and schedule campaigns..
  • Target specific audiences: Deliver tailored messages by integrating with Bloomreach Engagement for segmentation and 1:1 personalization, and with Bloomreach Clarity for conversational experiences.
  • Measure impact: Track performance through Discovery’s built-in analytics and extend reporting through Engagement dashboards.

https://www.bloomreach.com/en/news/2025/bloomreach-unites-search-storytelling-and-personalization/

Sitecore unveils SitecoreAI

November 4, 2025 /

Sitecore announced SitecoreAI, a digital experience platform that puts artificial intelligence at the center of marketing. As customer journeys shift from static search to AI-driven discovery.

Built on Sitecore XM Cloud, SitecoreAI unifies content, data, and personalization in a single, composable SaaS platform designed to optimize as teams work – helping marketers launch faster, spend smarter, and improve performance through AI-enabled workflows. At its core is the Agentic Studio, a workspace where marketers and AI collaborate to plan, create, and personalize experiences. The Agentic Studio debuts with 20 AI-powered agents that automate complex workflows from campaign planning to content migration, production and testing – and gives marketers and their agency partners the flexibility to design their own agents and flows using simple visual tools.

Within the Agentic Studio, Agentic Flows orchestrate multi-step personalized campaigns from briefing and experimentation through publishing and optimization. Spaces enable real-time collaboration between people and AI, turning disconnected tools into a coordinated system supporting continuous improvement.

Running on Microsoft Azure, SitecoreAI is the evolution of XM Cloud, unifying content management, customer data, personalization, and search in one platform that adapts through configuration and human feedback. For current XM Cloud customers, the upgrade is seamless – no migration required.

https://www.sitecore.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/2025/10/sitecore-unveils-sitecoreai-ushering-in-the-ai-first-era-of-digital-experience

Adobe delivers new AI assistants and models across Creative Cloud

October 28, 2025 /

Adobe announced new AI features across Creative Cloud apps including Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, and Illustrator. The updates focus on improving efficiency, precision, and control for creative professionals.

Highlights include the AI Assistant in Photoshop, which can handle repetitive tasks, provide personalized recommendations, and support conversational editing while allowing seamless switching to manual tools. Photoshop also gains Generative Fill with partner models, Generative Upscale using Topaz Labs and other partners, and Harmonize for blending objects naturally into scenes. Premiere introduces AI Object Mask, shape-based masking tools, and Fast Vector Mask in public beta for faster video editing. Lightroom receives an AI Assisted Culling feature to help manage large photo collections.

Firefly enhancements include Image Model 5 in public beta for 4MP photorealistic generation and editing, Prompt to Edit for natural language adjustments, and planned Layered Image Editing. Firefly Boards adds Rotate Object for 2D-to-3D perspectives, PDF export, and batch image downloads. Firefly Creative Production supports no-code batch editing of thousands of images. Firefly Custom Models let users create personalized models for stylistically consistent outputs.

Many features are in public or private beta, with partner models from Google, Black Forest Labs, Topaz, and others integrated directly into Adobe apps, available to Creative Cloud Pro and Firefly plan subscribers.

https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/10/adobe-max-2025-creative-cloud

Bloomreach and Uniform unveil turnkey conversational commerce framework

October 22, 2025 /

Bloomreach, an agentic platform for personalization, and Uniform, a composable digital experience platform, today announced a turnkey AI solution unveiled at the MACH Alliance’s AI Hackathon taking place from October 21-22. Powered by the Open Data Model from MACH Alliance, the solution showcased how composable technology and generative AI can be seamlessly combined, enabling any brand to build conversational experiences that help them retain control of their customer relationships.

Built on AWS, the solution aggregates product catalogs from multiple commerce platforms through Uniform, and enriches them with AI-driven tagging, normalization, and metadata optimization. Then, the product data flows into Bloomreach Clarity, where it powers a fully conversational shopping interface — allowing customers to browse, compare, and shop via natural dialogue. 

https://www.bloomreach.com/en/news/2025/bloomreach-and-uniform-to-unveil-new-turnkey-conversational-commerce-framework/ ■ https://www.uniform.dev ■ https://machalliance.org

commercetools Previews Cora

October 8, 2025 /

commercetools, an AI-first commerce platform for enterprises, announced a preview of commercetools Cora, an AI-native and multimodal shopping companion designed to demonstrate the future of conversational commerce. Cora shows how enterprises will be able to deliver human-like continuity across web, mobile, WhatsApp, and other channels. Shoppers can begin a journey on one device and continue it on another without losing context or progress. Cora maintains continuity and gives enterprises a branded companion they fully control.

Cora gives enterprises the practical tools to build loyalty and reduce drop-off by keeping every shopping journey connected. Key capabilities in the first phase of its launch include:

  • AI-First Product Discovery: Conversational search that understands vague requests (i.e., long queries) and translates them into relevant recommendations.
  • Omnichannel Continuity: Preserves context, cart state, and conversation history across all channels and devices.
  • Brand-Controlled Experience: Keeps shoppers inside a retailer’s ecosystem, ensuring that every interaction reflects the brand’s identity and builds lasting trust.

Cora is also fully white-labeled, allowing retailers to customize and brand the experience while relying on commercetools’ enterprise-grade security, governance, and data controls.

Cora will debut with AI-powered product search and launch in phases toward full agentic capabilities, including autonomous checkout.

https://commercetools.com/press-releases/commercetools-previews-cora

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