Havas buys Amazon shop to 'turbo-charge' ecommerce

Havas Group has made its fourth acquisition in just over six months by snapping up ecommerce agency Expert Edge – launched and staffed almost exclusively by Amazon experts – to boost the global expansion of Havas Media Group’s full-service ecommerce agency, Havas Market, from the UK.

The consultancy was founded in 2016 by former Amazon executives Alex Walker and David Jennison, who have led the business ever since. At Amazon, Jennison launched Amazon Global Selling and ran the marketplace business for Softlines, while Walker was a senior product manager before spells at ACCO and WeFarm.

Expert Edge works across all of Amazon’s global marketplaces and specialises in supporting sellers and vendors in the consumables categories but insists it is channel agnostic.

Since launch, Expert Edge has worked with over 100 brands, including Unilever, DASH and launch client Tenzing, helping the drink brand grow its Amazon sales revenue over 100% in both 2020 and 2021.

Havas Media Group clients will now have access to Expert Edge’s expertise in data insights and reporting, Amazon Advertising PPC, product listing & SEO boosting, content optimisation to build out their ecommerce enterprise.

Havas Media Group UK chief executive for UK & Ireland Patrick Affleck said: “Ecommerce is a huge opportunity but it’s complex and costly to not get right. As such, there’s a pressing need to rethink the ecommerce journey to deliver more meaningful and joined up retail experiences for the end customer.

“We want Havas Market to be a one-stop shop for our client’s ecommerce needs, whether that’s D2C businesses looking to scale up or established brands looking to create new routes to market. Along with our other recent acquisitions, we’re equipping Havas Market with all the necessary skills, tools and technology to help give our clients the competitive edge as they seek to fully realise the digital retail opportunity.”

All Expert Edge staff will move to HKX, the Havas Village in King’s Cross, London. Jennison will continue as CEO of Expert Edge and become managing director of Havas Market. He will will report into Affleck and will join the Havas Media Group leadership team.

Walker, meanwhile, becomes a non-executive director and will continue to support Jennison and the Havas Media team as a member of the board.

Jennison said: “We have developed a powerful mix of technology, data analytics and commercial frameworks to deliver optimal growth strategy for brands on Amazon.

“While our origins are in Amazon, our capabilities, services and expertise are channel agnostic and malleable across categories and sale on any retail channel. Havas Media Group offers Expert Edge the opportunity to scale what we do best, and internationally, and that’s to transform approaches to ecommerce.”

Havas claims the acquisition will equip the agency with the tools to offer clients end-to-end support across their operations and positions it as ecommerce consultancy that looks beyond media.

Sitting within Havas Market, Expert Edge’s capabilities will operate from the UK and its services will be accessible to clients through the Havas network locally and globally.

Havas Market was launched in October 2020 to create “more meaningful shopping experiences” for consumers and drive growth for brands in commerce.

The division has since expanded to over 20 markets, most recently launching in Australia, India and Singapore in Q2 2022. Other offices include Madrid, New York, Paris and Santiago de Chile. It is also currently supported by over 2000 media performance specialists across the Havas Media Group network, working with the likes of Dreams, Pernod Ricard and JDE.

The acquisition follows this year’s integration of digital experience agency Inviqa, integrated digital agency and Google partner Search Laboratory and creative optimisation specialists Additive+ into Havas Media Group UK.

Havas Group chairman and CEO Yannick Bolloré (pictured) said: “This acquisition turbo-charges our Havas Market offering, which has been purpose built from the outset to help our clients manage and optimise their business performance in ecommerce.

“Our ambition is to make the Havas Group, through Havas Market, an end-to-end ecommerce partner for companies, capable of providing them with truly customer-centric strategies across the entire customer journey, from their website to their points of sale, including marketplaces.”

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.