Partnership will help to provide seamless consumer experiences for brick-and-mortar brands

Brandify, the leader in local presence for multi-location brands, has announced a strategic partnership with Rakuten Ready, whose order-ahead technology powers more efficient Order for Pickup for brick-and-mortar businesses. The partnership allows the two companies to showcase each other’s offerings to retailers and enterprise brands, and creates synergies that connect Brandify’s location technology with Rakuten Ready’s commerce and Order for Pickup technology platforms.

For more than 20 years, Brandify technology has helped multi-location brands connect with consumers via brand websites, store pages, online profiles, social networks, and mobile apps. Rakuten Ready, founded as Curbside in 2013, and acquired by online retail giant Rakuten in 2018, offers predictive arrival technology and end-to-end mobile commerce solutions to brick-and-mortar stores of all kinds.

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The companies realized a mutual need to provide a broader solution set for retailers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Brandify saw, from the earliest days of the pandemic, a huge influx of consumer demand for contactless pickup and enhanced online services tied to offline transactions. Rakuten Ready, already well established as a provider of such services, realized digital communication channels were a critical means of broadcasting new curbside or in-store pickup services to consumers, who rely on search engines and navigation apps as a primary source of information about local businesses.

According to Brandify CEO Manish Patel, “A strategic partnership with Rakuten Ready made sense to us for a number of reasons. Brandify and Rakuten Ready are foundational components in the technology stack for retailers who want to meet consumer demand for safe, convenient local transactions. This is especially true as consumer habits shift during the pandemic, and we believe these changes will have long-term aftereffects.”

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These thoughts were echoed by Rakuten Ready CEO Jaron Waldman, who said, “Brandify brings a wealth of expertise to the table when it comes to enabling merchants to get the word out to consumers about the services we provide to brick-and-mortar businesses. We see this partnership as a way to grow both businesses while offering better experiences to consumers at this critical time.”

Resources will be made available to customers of both companies to provide education on the solutions available. Brandify and Rakuten Ready will also collaborate on research measuring the long-term impact of the pandemic and highlighting strategies that can help retailers succeed. Branded apps, as well, will be able to integrate Brandify’s location layer along with Rakuten Ready’s predictive arrival technology.

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