WPP has struck a strategic global partnership with Ottawa-based commerce company Shopify, focused on helping enterprise brand clients scale faster and reach more customers.
The two companies will jointly develop products, utilizing insights and expertise from WPP’s network of over 13,500 commerce specialists with Shopify’s platform. As part of the partnership, Shopify will collaborate with WPP on product development to build new, targeted solutions across sectors that address needs legacy commerce systems are unable to handle.
The companies will also roll out customized training and certification pathways for WPP employees, creating 300 certified Shopify specialists across WPP’s global network within the first year of the partnership.
In WPP’s release, it says shifting consumer expectations coupled with constantly evolving commerce innovation and the changing economic landscape have made it more important than ever for brands to reach consumers directly across all platforms. This is acutely the case for enterprise brands, WPP claims, which are finding that the legacy commerce infrastructure is not flexible enough to respond to emerging consumer buying behaviours.
Through this partnership, WPP says its clients will be able to unlock the growth opportunities of Shopify’s platform, bringing the “best of its DTC and conversion expertise to global brands.”
“The commerce sector has seen an incredible explosion in growth over the last few years, which is why Shopify is a natural fit for our clients given their enterprise credibility and speed at which they innovate,” says Mark Read, CEO of WPP. “As WPP continues to scale and strengthen our commerce offerings and expertise, I’m confident that this partnership will lead to more growth opportunities for the brands we work with.”
The partnership builds on WPP’s acquisition of specialist ecommerce agency Diff last, now part of the Wunderman Thompson global network. Through the partnership, WPP and Diff will also participate in Shopify’s Operation Hope Program, which aims to start, grow and scale one million Black-owned businesses in the United States by 2030.
