Co-op and Circana extend strategic partnership to unlock the next generation of retail growth
Market research and technology company Circana and convenience retailer Co-op have announced a new multi-year agreement, extending a partnership that has helped transform how Co-op, its suppliers and partners use data and insights to drive growth, improve collaboration and create value for members and customers.
Built on a shared commitment to collaboration, innovation and actionable insight, the Circana and Co-op partnership has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of the retail industry. The renewed agreement marks the next phase of HIVE’s development, further strengthening Co-op’s ability to unlock value from its data assets while helping suppliers make faster, more informed decisions. Over the next five years, Circana and Co-op will expand the platform’s capabilities through the integration of new data assets and measurement solutions, including supply chain, quick commerce and wholesale insights.
This broader ecosystem will create a more connected view of performance across the Co-op business, helping identify growth opportunities, strengthen supplier collaboration and support decision-making across commercial, category and operational teams.
Sprinklr Announces Availability of VOC Agent Suite in Gemini Enterprise Agent Marketplace
Customer experience management platform Sprinklr has announced the availability of the Sprinklr Voice of the Customer (VOC) Agent Suite in Gemini Enterprise Agent Marketplace, allowing organizations to access voice-of-customer intelligence from within existing Gemini workflows. Through Agent-to-Agent (A2A) connectivity, Gemini Enterprise users can discover and interact with specialized Sprinklr AI agents that analyze customer feedback and deliver actionable insights grounded in enterprise data.
Converting customer feedback from sources like surveys, reviews, social media, support cases, and news coverage into timely business decisions remains a challenge. The Suite is designed to address that gap by combining access to customer signals with specialized AI agents that understand business questions, retrieve relevant information, and deliver conclusions with supporting evidence and context.
Sprinklr’s VOC Agent Suite consists of purpose-built agents, each designed to address recurring business needs. These include brand health monitoring, crisis monitoring, competitive benchmarking, trend forecasting, influencer & content strategy, campaign performance, customer experience analysis, and general listening.
Bentley Motors deploys Fifty’s platform to support global audience strategy
Audience tech and media services company Fifty has announced a new 12-month licence agreement with Bentley Motors. The agreement gives the luxury auto brand access to Fifty’s audience intelligence platform, including its newly launched AudienceAI Assistant, to support its global audience strategy.
The initial phase of the work will help Bentley develop a deeper understanding of the audiences, interests and cultural communities connected to the brand. Bentley will use this intelligence to explore marketing opportunities across partnerships, ambassadors, media targeting and social strategy, while helping central and in-market marketing teams identify relevant audiences and cultural opportunities across Bentley’s approximately 60 global markets.
The new agreement builds on an eight-year relationship between Bentley and Fifty. Previous work helped Bentley understand its audiences across areas including technology, property, audio and music. The introduction of AudienceAI Assistant represents the next evolution of this collaboration, making years of audience intelligence more accessible to teams around the world.
For Bentley, the Fifty platform provides a single, always-on source of audience intelligence available to marketing teams across global markets. Teams can explore their audience models directly to support campaign planning, brand positioning and future product narratives, including Bentley’s transition towards electric vehicles, without needing to commission research for every new question.
Debenhams Group and Storfund help marketplace partners get paid faster with new cash flow solution
Debenhams Group, the parent company of Debenhams, Karen Millen, boohoo, MAN and PrettyLittleThing, has launched a new cash flow solution that aims to give its 30,000+ brand partners faster access to sales revenue as soon as orders are shipped. Now live on Debenhams ahead of the Christmas trading period, Storfund’s Daily Advance solution allows partners to access their sales revenue daily, rather than waiting for the standard marketplace payment cycle, helping improve liquidity.
Many Debenhams sellers have already been using the service through Storfund. In response, Debenhams partnered with Storfund to embed Daily Advance directly into its marketplace, making it even easier for sellers to get paid faster. As part of the solution, Storfund will advance up to 80% of a partner’s shipped sales each day. When Debenhams Group makes its marketplace payment to partners, funds are deposited into a Storfund-nominated account. Storfund then releases the outstanding 20% balance to the partner, minus applicable fees.
Participation is optional and subject to Storfund eligibility, with no subscription or set-up fees and no minimum term. Eligible brand partners can use the service on sales made across Debenhams Group marketplaces, including Debenhams, boohoo and PrettyLittleThing, without any additional admin.
Matalan builds on digital growth as new app delivers strong early results
Matalan, the leading UK fashion and homeware retailer, has reported strong early performance from its new app, marking further progress in its plans to accelerate digital growth. The retailer’s first fully native app has recorded 1.76 million downloads since launching in August, with monthly active users growing by 10% month-on-month since launch.
Developed in partnership with mobile specialist Apadmi, the app has been built from the ground up around how Matalan’s customers want to shop, and offers a more intuitive, personalised experience. Features include intelligent search to help customers find products more easily, richer product content and streamlined checkout through Apple Pay and Google Pay. The app also brings Matalan Me rewards and account information together in one place, making it easier for customers to access their benefits and personalised offers.
The app is designed to connect Matalan’s digital and physical shopping experiences. An in-store barcode scanning feature allows customers to check product details, availability and reviews using their phones, helping them move more easily between shopping in-store and online.
Adobe and BWT Alpine Formula One team partner to fuel fan engagement with AI-powered experiences
Adobe and BWT Alpine Formula One Team have announced a global premium partnership to reshape fan experiences through AI, with Adobe becoming the Official AI Fan Experience Partner for the team.
As Formula One’s fan base continues to grow globally, audiences have come to expect connected and highly customised interactions. Adobe AI solutions will enable the team to create and personalise experiences with greater speed, while engaging consumers that are leaning more on AI agents and large language models (LLMs) to discover and research brands. The partnership will also empower individual creativity by providing fans AI-powered design tools to express their passion for the sport.
The partnership will provide BWT Alpine Formula One Team access to solutions across Adobe CX Enterprise, a set of solutions that unify marketing, creativity and AI technologies to drive impactful fan experiences. Over 20,000 brands rely on Adobe solutions to drive Customer Experience Orchestration (CXO), creating systems where organizations can anticipate customer intent and create interactions that are relevant and engaging. BWT Alpine Formula One Team is partnering with Adobe to accelerate CXO and reimagine every touchpoint it has with fans.
The partnership is focused on AI initiatives that will include Adobe GenStudio, enabling the team to create tailored experiences for fans anywhere in the world; Adobe Experience Platform, providing a real-time, comprehensive view into fan engagement; Adobe Brand Visibility, which can understand how the team is showing up across platforms and boost discoverability; and Adobe Express, to equip fans with image generation and design tools.
Spark Foundry research reveals that 25-34-year-olds are the consumers most likely to rethink, reject and replace brands
Britain’s most difficult consumers to win over are not Gen Z, but the generation navigating life’s biggest milestones. New research from Spark Foundry UK, Consumers Rewired: The Hidden Dynamics Reshaping How People Decide, identifies 25 to 34-year-olds as the age group most likely to rethink the services and brands they spend their money with. They are more than twice as likely to lose trust in a brand than 18 to 24-year-olds, who emerged as one of Britain’s most resilient consumer groups.
Life stage appears to be a key driver rather than age. Almost two-thirds (64.8%) of 25 to 34-year-olds say major life events prompt them to reassess their relationship with brands, from buying a home and starting a family to taking on significant financial commitments.
Spark Foundry UK has dubbed this cohort ‘The Milestone Generation’. Straddling both younger Millennials and older Gen Z consumers, they are entering a period of life defined by bigger decisions, greater financial pressure and higher expectations of the businesses they rely on. As a result, they are more selective and have less patience for brands that fail to deliver.
The findings form part of Spark Foundry UK’s latest study exploring how consumer relationships with brands are becoming increasingly fluid, conditional and shaped by lived experience rather than long-established perceptions. It found that 40% of UK consumers lose confidence in a brand after just one poor experience, rising to 80% after two. As trust becomes more responsive to everyday interactions, consumers are also taking a more active role in forming their opinions. Rather than relying on shortcuts, 59% would rather read ten reviews than an AI-generated summary.
