Accenture Interactive acquires e-commerce provider Media Hive

Dive Brief:

Accenture acquired Media Hive, an e-commerce solutions provider in order to boost the capabilities of its in-house agency Accenture Interactive around Salesforce Commerce Cloud, per a press release.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud was previously known as Demandware. Media Hive was the 2016 North America Delivery Partner of the Year for Demandware and Accenture Interactive will take in its team of strategists, consultants, delivery and support specialists and their expertise in platform development, systems architecture, interactive experiences, retail innovation and digital commerce.
“The acquisition of Demandware by Salesforce has created a new opportunity for Accenture to deliver seamless e-commerce solutions to clients built on Salesforce Commerce Cloud," said Glen Hartman, head of Accenture Interactive, North America, in the press release. "Together, we will bring together Accenture Interactive’s omni-channel marketing expertise and scale with Media Hive’s robust technical and retail expertise to drive the ultimate commerce experience for our clients.”

Dive Insight:

One of the more notable trends in the marketing and advertising industry is management consultancies like Accenture increasingly nudging into business spaces traditionally held by agencies and holding companies with their portfolios of specialty agencies. Accenture's acquisition of Media Hive is an indication that the convergence of the kind of data expertise that management consultancies have with agency services is continuing unabated.

The addition of cloud-based e-commerce expertise by Accenture suggests the company sees an opportunity to fill a need in digital marketing for omnichannel experiences as brick-and-mortar retailers looking to beef up their e-commerce strategies so they can better compete against Amazon while CPG brands are increasingly looking for direct-to-consumer e-commerce opportunities. Recent work from Media Hive includes helping Lucky Brand launch a new web experience and partnering with Kenneth Cole to offer same-day delivery via Postmates.

The blurring of the lines between vendors in the digital marketing space also applies to agencies and tech giants like Salesforce, Microsoft, Google and Facebook, who are snapping up companies that handle a specialized function within the industry. A recent example of the process working the other direction was WPP digital agency Possible buying Marketplace Ignition, a consulting firm with a focus on Amazon marketing and e-commerce strategies.

In an acquisition from last November, Accenture added to Accenture Interactive’s capabilities through buying U.K.-based creative and digital data agency, Karmarama.