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SI Partners advise Expert Edge on sale to Havas Group

Sector

Technology & Data Services

Role

Sell Side

Date

September 2022

Countries

Full-service ecommerce and Amazon consultancy Expert Edge has been sold to Havas Group as advised by SI Partners.

The new partnership will build Havas Media Group’s global expansion of their full-service ecommerce agency Havas Market from the UK. The acquisition of Expert Edge equips Havas Market with the means to offer clients end-to-end support across their ecommerce ecosystem and positions the agency as ecommerce consultants that look beyond media.

Expert_Edge

Expert Edge adds specialist capabilities in strategic consulting and expert operational capabilities in ecommerce to Havas Market. The business has foundations in supporting brands to grow their global revenues on Amazon. Havas Media Group clients will now have access to Expert Edge’s expertise in Data Insights & Reporting, Amazon Advertising PPC, Product Listing & SEO Boosting, Content Optimisation and DSP on Amazon to build out their ecommerce enterprise.

The acquisition strengthens Havas Media Group's capabilities in providing a full-funnel suite of services across the ecommerce journey. These services include awareness and attention (traditional, digital and performance media) right through to sale (product, pricing, forecasting, organic, shops, logistics) and much more. 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.

Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and CEO of Havas Group, comments: “We are delighted to welcome the Expert Edge team to the Havas family. This acquisition turbocharges 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 e-commerce 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.”

Expert Edge was founded in 2016 by Alex Walker and was joined by David Jennison to lead and run the business in 2018. They had previously worked together at Amazon where Jennison launched Amazon Global Selling and ran the marketplace business for Softlines before joining Expert Edge. By 2010, Expert Edge had worked with over 100 brands, including Unilever, DASH and launch client, Tenzing, helping the drinks brand grow its Amazon sales revenue over 100% in both 2020 and 2021.

Jennison, who’ll become managing director of Havas Market as well as CEO of Expert Edge, 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.”

Expert Edge staff will move to HKX, the Havas Village in King’s Cross, London. Alex Walker becomes a Non-Executive Director and will continue to support David Jennison and the HMG team as a member of the board. David will report into Patrick Affleck and will join the Havas Media Group leadership team.

Havas Market was launched in October 2020 to create more meaningful shopping experiences for consumers and drive meaningful growth for brands in commerce. Havas Market 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 HMG network, working with the likes of Dreams, Pernod Ricard and JDE.

Patrick Affleck, CEO UK & Ireland, Havas Media Group UK, 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.”

About Havas Group
Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications groups. Founded in 1835 in Paris, the Group employs 21,000 people in more than 100 countries and operates through its three business units covering all communication activities. Havas Group’s mission is to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and people. 

About Havas Media Group UK
Havas Media Group’s one of the largest advertising groups in the world, working with the likes of Dominos, O2, Legal & General, UMG and Starbucks.



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"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."

David Jennison, CEO of Expert Edge