Our Company

Edge by Ascential was introduced to the world on October 23rd, 2018. The “Edge” name came from many months of work listening to customers, prospects, employees and other industry leaders to better understand what brands and retailers were looking for and to help them win in retail. While each had their unique challenges and reasons they were looking for data, analytics, insights, advisory or go-to-market strategic guidance, they shared one common objective: to find their own advantage – an edge – versus competitors, versus brands or retailers, and even with their own internal organizations as they worked to align resources and support.

After reviewing 100s of brand ideas from our branding agency, employees, and other stakeholders, we landed on Edge by Ascential; simply and elegantly stating our vision and purpose: to give brands and retailers the edge they need to win in ecommerce-driven retail. The addition of “by Ascential” ensures our customers understand the bread and depth of capability and resources at their disposal when they work with us. The scaffolding elements across our website and other materials symbolize the foundation of solutions we provide to our customers as we help them build their own edge.

We do not believe that retail can be separated by ecommerce and brick-and-mortar, nor do we believe that “omnichannel” sufficiently captures the journey, needs, desires, or experiences shoppers are looking for from brands and retailers. By various estimates from Forrester and others, a digital touchpoint is involved in 70% of all retail decisions – and it’s likely higher. 

Every store-based channel is being impacted and influenced by digital, from discount to the pharmacy, and from customer engagement to last-mile fulfillment. Indeed, the physical store is being digitized as technology enables capturing of customer data in-store, while at the same time pure players and Digital Native Brands are moving into the offline/store based world. 

The reality is that today, every retail purchase is in some form influenced or impacted by an element of digital, be it a review of a product detail page, an ad on a mobile device, or an in-aisle execution that blends the digital and physical worlds.

Hence, at Edge by Ascential, we work to measure and advise on all forms of retail to help create one unified online-to-offline view of the end shopping experience, because all of retail is now digital retail.

Ascential plc, our parent company, is a specialist information company helping companies win in the digital economy. Recognizing the critical element of retail, and specifically, ecommerce, a strategy group led by Michael Lisowski, now President of Edge by Ascential, began listening to customers and studying the market to identify the needs and capabilities brands and retailers would need to win now and into the future. To date, five acquisitions have been made and combined to create Edge by Ascential.

Our business stands upon the foundation of these five great, legacy businesses. With a combined 38 years of technology and expertise from inception to the acquisition, Planet Retail, RetailNet Group, One Click Retail, Clavis Insight and Brand View each was previously a world market leader in its respective areas of specialty.

Planet Retail, founded in 2001 in London, England, was one of the first businesses dedicated to helping FMCGs prepare for their annual range/assortment review. With data quality at the heart of any range review, Planet Retail was a pioneer in the industry by moving to an online solution that eased access to their database of comparable global retailer data, insights and forecasts. Planet Retail was acquired by Ascential (then known as EMAP) in 2007.

RetailNet Group, founded in 2006 in Waltham, Massachusetts, was the leading insight and advisory firm with specialized expertise in forward-thinking guidance on retail growth, with particular foresight to focus on ecommerce long before most of the industry were aware of this emerging opportunity. RNG was famous for its future orientation and taking complex ideas and datasets, and translating them into actionable insights. RNG was acquired by Ascential (then known as Top Right Group) in 2015.

One Click Retail, founded in 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah, was the first to provide accurate and reliable market share estimates to brands selling on Amazon.com. Over seven years the company developed more than 1,500 algorithms, more than 250 machine learning features to power applications, proprietary mapping and matching algorithms, and proactive data accuracy quality control measures that go three levels deep. One Click Retail was acquired by Ascential in 2016.

Clavis Insight, founded in 2008 in Dublin, Ireland, pioneered the concept of creating a global set of data to measure comparable digital shelf performance across retailers, regions, markets and countries, down to the location or zip/postcode level. The solution sets the standard for real-time and daily measurement of the five Essential KPIs: Availability, Search, Content, Reviews, and Price. Clavis Insight was acquired in 2017.

Brand View, founded in 2008 in Reading, England, was the leading international provider of real-time price, promotions and online product positioning analytics. The solution helped brands and retailers drive growth and margins with tools for planning, executing and analyzing optimal pricing and promotions strategies. Brand View was acquired by Ascential in 2018.

Today, we are proud to be one company, at the same time valuing the cultures and histories each legacy brand contributed. Edge by Ascential is headquartered at 7 Savoy Court in London, next door to the iconic Savoy Theater. Additional offices are located in Reading, England; Boston, Massachusetts; Salt Lake City, UT; Dublin, Ireland; Paris, France; Shanghai, China; Frankfurt, Germany; Stamford, Connecticut; New York, New York.

Click here to learn more about career opportunities at Edge by Ascential.

Click here to learn more about Ascential plc on their corporate website and Wikipedia.

Meet our leadership here.

Ascential is a specialist, global, information company that helps the world’s most ambitious businesses win in the digital economy. In an increasingly complex, digitally-driven world, we enable smart decision-making for the world’s most ambitious businesses, helping the world’s top consumer product and service companies understand what’s important and how to act on it – today, and in the future.

Our information, insights, connections, data and digital tools solve customer problems in three disciplines:

PRODUCT DESIGN via global trend forecasting service WGSN;

MARKETING via global benchmark for creative excellence and effectiveness Cannes Lions and WARC and strategic advisory firm MediaLink;

SALES via accurate and actionable ecommerce platform Edge by Ascential, provider of managed services to consumer product companies trading on Amazon Flywheel Digital, the world's premier payments and FinTech congress Money20/20, global retail industry summit World Retail Congress and Retail Week.

Ascential also powers political, construction and environmental intelligence brands DeHavilland, Glenigan and Groundsure.