Publicis acquires e-commerce digital agency Corra

Publicis Groupe has acquired New York-based e-commerce digital agency Corra, which specializes in building digital storefronts for brands.

Corra’s 350-strong workforce will become part of Publicis’ digital transformation consultancy Publicis Sapient.

Chief executive Ron Bongo, chief technology officer Michael Harvey and president Rachel Weir will report into Publicis Sapient’s commerce practice leadership.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Founded in 2002, Corra started out implementing back-end technology solutions. It began to specialize in e-commerce in 2008, according to a blog post, and has since developed a comprehensive set of solutions across commerce architecture, strategy and design. Corra’s platform expertise include Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus and MACH Alliance composable commerce solutions.

Publicis said it acquired Corra to strengthen its Adobe offering and composable commerce capabilities, which utilizes multiple vendors in a custom application rather than relying on one out-of-the-box solution. Publicis Sapient is a Platinum Adobe partner, while Corra is a Gold Adobe partner.

Publicis Sapient CEO Nigel Vaz said in a press release: “Corra’s strong leadership team, proven expertise deploying composable architectures at scale, broad depth of Adobe commerce capabilities and impressive client roster, coupled with the cultural synergies between our two organizations, will enable us to drive even greater impact for existing clients and attract new business as we continue to scale.” 

Corra’s clients span retail, food and beverage, tech and electronics, health and wellness and B2B and include household names like All-Clad, Nestlé, Danone, Huawei and Yeti.

The agency has offices in 12 cities across the U.S., the U.K. and India. It describes itself as a “remote first organization” on its website with employees spread across 18 countries and 22 U.S. states.

Corra adds to Publicis’ commerce arsenal. In recent years it has acquired several firms to build its e-commerce and retail media capabilities, including e-commerce analytics platform Profitero in May last year and retail media platform CitrusAd in 2021. In November, it formed a retail media joint venture with food retailer Carrefour Group across Europe and Latin America.

Agency holding companies have poured investment into commerce to take advantage of consumer spending shifts, with global e-commerce rising from 15% of total retail sales in 2019 to 21% in 2021, according to Morgan Stanley. E-commerce is expected to maintain a growth rate of at least 8% of the next few years and surpass $1 trillion in sales in the U.S. in 2023.