The acquisition, which was for an undisclosed amount, will bolster Merkle’s global experience and commerce practice in the Americas, which was set up by the company last year.

All Shift7 employees, including the leadership team, will join Merkle, with the company rebranded as Shift7, a Merkle Company.

Shift7 helps B2B companies modernise their marketing and sales processes through online customer engagement.

Michael Komasinski, global chief executive at Merkle, said: “Shift7’s Salesforce Ventures backing, Crest Partner status and stellar leadership in the manufacturing and distribution sectors will add strength, scale and speciality to Merkle.

“We are excited to welcome Shift7 into the Merkle Family.”

Andrew Walker, chief executive at Shift7, added: “After years of being hyper focused on establishing Shift7 as a leader in B2B digital transformation, the time is now for us to join forces with a company that can complement and expand upon our capabilities in data, analytics, commerce and marketing transformation to support our scale and growth initiatives.

“In Dentsu and Merkle, we’ve found exactly the connection we were looking for to achieve that end and more.

“I look forward to joining the growing Merkle family, where we’ll be able to deepen our expertise, broaden the set of solutions available to our clients and open an abundance of career opportunities for our people.”