Online retail software provider CommerceHub Inc. today announced that it has acquired U.K.-based startup Cadeera to expand its artificial intelligence capabilities.

The company disclosed the deal in conjunction with a major rebrand. CommerceHub, which has operated under its current name for more than two decades, will be known as Rithum Holdings Inc. going forward.

Rithum provides a platform that about 40,000 retailers and product manufacturers use to manage their e-commerce operations. According to the company, its platform processes more than $50 billion worth of online purchases every year. Rithum also manages over $500 million in annual ad spending for its customers.

Retailers use the company’s platform to perform dropshipping, or the practice of selling merchandise that they don’t store in their own warehouses. Rithum provides access to a catalog of products kept in various suppliers’ logistics facilities. A retailer can find items that complement its existing product catalog, list those items on its website and have Rithum manage the delivery process.

The software maker’s platform likewise promises to ease logistics tasks for merchandise suppliers. Additionally, such companies have access to a so-called product feed management tool. It automates the process of syncing product details and availability information from a supplier’s backend inventory database to e-commerce websites. 

Rithum also offers a number of other features, including an AI-powered tool that can launch e-commerce ad campaigns and find ways to increase their effectiveness. The startup acquisition that the company announced in conjunction with its rebrand today is designed to extend its AI capabilities.

Cadeera is a U.K.-based provider of machine learning software for furniture and interior design retailers. Its technology provides the ability to create so-called shoppable marketing images. Using Cadeera’s software, a retailer can automatically create a list of all the items shown in a photo and enable customers to order them with a few clicks.

The company says its AI models also lend themselves to generating shopping recommendations. According to Cadeera, the models analyze the style of the furniture images a consumer views while browsing an online store and surface similar items.

The company’s third focus area is metadata management. To make product images easier to organize, retailers often enrich them with metadata that contains information such as the type of products shown in a photo and their price. Cadeera’s AI models can automatically add this information to save time for inventory management teams. 

“With this new platform, AI will accelerate Rithum’s disruption of commerce by automating a number of processes across the e-commerce lifecycle – enabling retailers and brands to meaningfully reduce operating expenses and increase speed-to-site for new products,” said Rithum Chief Technology and Product Officer Aarthi Ramamurthy.

Rithum will use Cadeera’s software to build tools that can create shopping recommendations and automatically generate e-commerce marketing content. The company said it will “continue to invest in this area significantly” to further expand its platform’s AI capabilities. That raises the possibility Rithum, which has made multiple acquisitions in recent years, could buy additional AI providers to speed up its development roadmap.

Image: Rithum