Emerald Holding Inc., New York, announced that it has completed the acquisition of PlumRiver LLC, State College, Pa.
PlumRiver is an international provider of software-as-a-service technology through its Elastic Suite solution. The platform streamlines the wholesale buying process for both brands and retail buyers, which will create a digital year-round transactional platform for use by Emerald’s customers, according to the company.
“Over the course of 2020, we launched many digital product offerings focused on customer engagement, new customer acquisition, and delivering high-value customer solutions,” says Brian Field, Emerald’s chief operating officer. “From our customers’ feedback, the highest value of these needs is clearly centered on the transaction between buyer and seller. Through our acquisition of PlumRiver and the Elastic platform, we now have the capability to offer a full spectrum of bundled solutions to our customers — from product discovery, lead-generation, to transaction — across both in-person, face-to-face events as well as year-round, digital opportunities.”
The acquisition will accelerate Emerald’s strategy to provide 365-day-per-year engagement for its customer base regardless of location by significantly expanding its digital commerce capabilities and providing its customers with robust transactional functionality, including deep enterprise-level integration to brands’ ERP systems, allowing customers to manage orders, real-time inventory and product merchandising, according to the company. PlumRiver is integrated with manufacturers and retailers across numerous industries, most notably in the outdoor, surf, cycling, footwear and sporting-goods arenas, all compatible with Emerald’s portfolio of show brands, including Outdoor Retailer and Surf Expo, among others.
PlumRiver’s Elastic B2B platform bridges the gap between sellers’ order-processing systems and allows brands to sell directly to their buyers using print-free digital product catalogs and merchandising technology. Key client brands include Patagonia, The North Face, Burton, Shimano, Scott Sports, Rip Curl, Boardriders, Volcom, Timberland, New Balance, Vans, Orvis and Puma.
“Elastic has clearly emerged as the preferred wholesale purchasing and digital merchandising solution among both brands and retailers,” says Josh Reddin, chief executive officer of PlumRiver. “Looking forward, I couldn’t be more encouraged by the opportunity to establish Elastic as the standard B2B ecommerce solution across even more verticals as we expand our business through our combination with Emerald. Their portfolio of industry-leading events provides significant growth opportunities for our solutions.” — D.S.
