IBM Acquires Expert Personal Shopper from Fluid

IBM has acquired the Expert Personal Shopper (XPS) division of Fluid, a provider of digital customer experiences. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition includes the XPS solution, a dialogue-based product recommendation platform developed by Fluid that applies the power of IBM Watson to personalize the customer experience and improve product discovery. The XPS solution and several key members of the XPS team will become part of IBM iX (Interactive Experience).

Through the power of Watson, XPS uses natural language to assist shoppers across digital channels. Delivered as a service over the internet, XPS provides tailored recommendations on a business’ site, across online and mobile experiences, and can be incorporated into social channels.

"We look to incorporate the Expert Personal Shopper platform into the customer engagement and commerce solutions that we create for our retail clients. By adding XPS into digital experiences, IBM iX aims to make online discovery simpler, smarter and more personalized for consumers," said Paul Papas, global leader of IBM iX, in a statement. "In addition to retail, we believe XPS can be leveraged and applied to the digital properties for brands across a variety of industries."

"Three years ago, Fluid, in collaboration with IBM Watson, developed the very first commercial example of conversational commerce," said Kent Deverell, CEO of Fluid, in a statement. "Since then, we've been hard at work developing Fluid XPS, a leading platform for intelligent, dialog-driven product recommendations, and are very excited about its future as part of IBM iX."

The XPS solution will extend IBM's portfolio of SaaS offerings and services that help companies of all sizes conduct commerce and engage with their customers.

---