CommerceHub Buying Mercent

E-Commerce vendor CommerceHub on Friday (Dec. 19) announced its intent to buy Mercent, a retail tech company based in Seattle. The deal is expected to be finalized in January 2015, subject to customary closing conditions, the companies said.

“We evaluated all the providers in this space and consulted a number of large retailers regarding their current solutions. Mercent stood out as the only combination of enterprise-scale platform and services that are ready for the caliber of retailers we support,” said CommerceHub CEO Frank Poore. “By combining CommerceHub and Mercent, we will have an offering that enables retailers to radically expand their product assortment, generate greater demand, and optimize customer delivery from any source of supply – including stores, warehouses, drop-shippers or third-party sellers.”

Eric Best, Mercent founder and CEO, will remain with the company serving as chief marketing officer, reporting to Poore.

CommerceHub has a virtual-inventory platform that it claims has more than 8,500 drop-ship suppliers.