The Supply Side: WhyteSpyder, Nielsen Brandbank align to provide deeper retail insights

Nielsen Brandbank is partnering with Springdale-based WhyteSpyder’s SKU Ninja service to provide retailers and brands more insights and richer content creation aimed at increasing online sales.

The partners announced the new alliance Wednesday (Feb. 5). It will give brands and retailers better capabilities to share their stories with buying consumers through the use of feature sets containing videos, marketing images and rich text as well as product comparison and interactive product tours. The end goal of the service, according to a news release, is to increase customer engagement, improve search engine optimization and to shorten the path to purchase.

SKU Ninja was born out of WhyteSpyder and the company’s self-built technology tool. Clients use the tool to understand a product’s competitive position online. It leverages shopper insights gleaned from social media and competitor data while also evaluating the strength of content descriptions and ratings. The service was launched in 2019 and sold as a subscription.

Nielsen Brandbank is also a leading product content creation management and publishing solution for multi-channel retailing. The business works with major multinational grocery and health and beauty retailers and over 7,000 FMCG suppliers in 28 markets. Nielsen Brandbank creates, captures, manages and distributes product content, which is optimized for shopper marketing and category planning.

With the new partnership, Nielsen Brandbank and SKU Ninja will collaborate to make this service available to a much larger audience.

“As leaders in the industry, it is our mission to enable exceptional consumer experiences everywhere, and we are excited to have partnered with SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder, who share our commitment to enhance and accelerate product content online to deliver a best in class shopping experience,” said Mike Nickituk, global managing director at Nielsen Brandbank. “We are proud to support retailers and brands globally by offering a more dynamic way of working to manage the evolving needs of the conscious consumer.”

Nielsen Brandbank’s connection to many of the world’s best retailers and brands is an ideal scenario to make a fast impact and help more companies win. WhyteSpyder has mostly focused on smaller to medium-sized brands and this partnership provides a brander opportunity to showcase the SKU Ninja e-commerce tools.

“We are thrilled to work with such an effective, well-respected company like Nielsen Brandbank,” said J.S. Bull, CEO at SKU Ninja + WhyteSpyder. “As we have built and optimized our SKU Ninja SaaS platform to make it easy for retailers and brands to win online, we are excited to bring this experience to Nielsen Brandbank’s portfolio of clients, which represents the greatest retailers and brands in the world.”

Eric Howerton, a co-founder of WhyteSpyder, said the alliance is a win-win for the two companies, considered leaders in the content creation and management space. He said WhyteSpyder will remain independent and there is no merger or ownership share exchange between the two partners.

Howerton said the companies will work together to provide a more comprehensive service option for brands and retailers looking to grow online sales and lead their categories. Howerton said the two companies were already doing that work at various levels on their own, but the new partnership will strengthen the quality and provide more access to the SKU Ninja tools across the retail spectrum.

Editor’s note: The Supply Side section of Talk Business & Politics focuses on the companies, organizations, issues and individuals engaged in providing products and services to retailers. The Supply Side is managed by Talk Business & Politics and sponsored by Propak Logistics.