Chicago, IL, and Waterloo, Canada—IRIannounced its acquisition of retail consumer insights provider Intelligent Shopper Solutions (ISS), a retail consumer insight provider that enables collaboration between retailers and suppliers. ISS will operate a stand-alone operating subsidiary of IRI in the near term.

A press release from IRI notes that ISS brings extensive retail consumer insights expertise and a cloud-based software platform with capabilities and retailer relationships that are complementary to IRI’s existing offerings. As outlined in the release:
  • IRI clients will benefit from enhanced consumer insight expertise and capabilities that ISS brings to further support IRI’s existing loyalty products and gateways.
  • IRI clients will benefit from the expertise of the ISS team in developing customer-centric retail experiences.
  • IRI will be better positioned to serve a broader footprint of global clients by adding ISS gateways with leading retailers across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
ISS was acquired fromKognitiv Corporation, a B2B technology organization focused on collaborative commerce. As part of the transaction, IRI also entered into an innovation and marketing partnership with Kognitiv. The release explains that, through this partnership, IRI retailer clients will have the opportunity to leverage Kognitiv’s Platform-as-a-Service to scale their partnerships, connect peer-to-peer, and deliver new value to consumers through hyper-personalized experiences within their ecosystem.

“We are thrilled to welcome ISS to the IRI family as we continue to invest in our industry-leading capabilities and expertise and build on our track record of successful loyalty collaboration programs,” said Andrew Appel, President and CEO of IRI, in the release. “The addition of ISS expands IRI’s platform to provide CPG clients a more complete view of consumer shopping habits across even more leading retailers. Further, the talented ISS team brings deep expertise in providing rich, loyalty-based consumer behavioral insights, which we look forward to leveraging, along with our unparalleled data assets from more than 500 million loyalty cards, to deliver enhanced collaboration and growth for IRI clients.

Appel also said IRI also looks forward to its ongoing partnership with Kognitiv. This partnership, he said, "will create new opportunities for collaboration with our clients, assisting them deliver increased value to their consumers.”

Peter Schwartz, Founder and Executive Chairman of Kognitiv, added, “As part of IRI, ISS will be well positioned to continue offering best-in-class solutions and capabilities and drive more differentiated growth for CPG retailers and suppliers around the world. Partnering with IRI makes tremendous sense as we share a common belief in the strategic application of big data, particularly zero-party data, to drive new opportunities for our clients and new value for their most important consumers. This partnership will allow Kognitiv to accelerate our vision for collaborative commerce and bring a unique and complementary set of capabilities to both organizations.”