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Two Shopify agencies join forces with The Stable to complete total commerce solution for brands across retail and DTC

Minneapolis, MN – The Stable, a commerce agency known for bringing some of the world’s most exciting brands into retailers like Target, Walmart, and Amazon has acquired two of the country’s leading Shopify agencies, BVA and Zehner.

These strategic acquisitions bring together The Stable’s retail strength with BVA and Zehner’s deep DTC and Shopify design and implementation expertise. The combined offering creates the largest, strongest, and most impactful modern commerce agency for consumer brands globally.

“Retail is no longer defined solely by traditional brick and mortar. Direct-to-Consumer and social media have now all been cemented as legitimate platforms for brands to sell product, and have a direct relationship with consumers,” said Chad Hetherington, CEO and Co-Founder of The Stable. “With these two acquisitions, we are now best positioned to help brands activate across all channels for where the world of retail is now and in the future.”

BVA, which launched in 2013, is one of the pioneer agencies in the Shopify ecosystem. It has designed, developed, and optimized direct-to-consumer storefronts for high-profile brands such as Avocado Mattress, Black Rifle Coffee, Chubbies, Draper James, NOBULL, Pit Viper, Red Bull, Untuckit, and many others.

In 2018, NY-based August Spark took majority interest in BVA with the goal of building out a portfolio of technology and marketing services to help digitally native brands accelerate their e-commerce and digital initiatives. Since then, the company has organically grown in size and capabilities as well as bolstering their existing technology and digital media capabilities.

“The Stable provides a unique and invaluable opportunity to continue our evolution as a top commerce agency – both culturally and professionally,” said Travis Hess, CEO of BVA. “The end result is materially differentiating and maps directly to the demand we are seeing from consumer brands in the market.”

Founded in 2007, Zehner is a full-service digital commerce agency that connects brands with consumers through strategic design and technology. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Zehner team takes a data-driven approach to help consumer brands bring ideas from concept, to design, to execution. Services include digital and brand strategy, user experience (UX) design, technology selection and implementation, and post-launch optimization and managed services for fashion, lifestyle, and consumer brands.

As a top global Shopify Plus partner, Zehner has launched 100+ Shopify Plus builds and worked closely with Shopify’s large accounts team to bring some of the biggest and most complex brands onto the platform, including Fiji Water, Johnson & Johnson, Boll & Branch, Rhone, Outerknown, Stamps.com, and Soylent. Zehner has also been driving a significant number of headless commerce and progressive web app (PWA) implementations over the past 24 months. It was awarded Recharge Agency of the Year in 2019, Yotpo’s Shopify Agency of the Year in 2019, as well as Yotpo’s Excellence Award for North America in 2020.

“At Zehner, our mission and purpose is to connect brands and consumers in more meaningful ways,” said Matthew Zehner, CEO and Founder of Zehner. “By joining The Stable, we can truly elevate this connection across all touchpoints, both digital and physical, creating a true omnichannel experience for everyone.”

The Stable, whose client roster includes quip, Ring, and Cora has grown from a retail-services firm to a fully integrated agency spanning physical/digital retail, media, brand development and analytics and insights services. In 2020, The Stable acquired retail agency Kreative, e-commerce tech company RichContext, and sales and marketing firm Jacobs. It just announced the acquisition of Walmart consulting agency The Retail Firm and was named one of Inc Magazine’s fastest-growing private companies in America.

BVA’s CEO Travis Hess will lead the newly formed DTC team and will oversee client strategy, creative, digital experience design and implementation, digital marketing and media. Zehner’s COO Michael Kucera will work closely with Hess overseeing DTC operations and delivery. Matthew Zehner will be appointed as Global Head of Strategic Partnerships focused on private equity and venture capital relationships.

The Stable will now employ more than 500 people with offices in Minneapolis, Bentonville, Seattle, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and virtually across the U.S.

About The Stable

The Stable is a fully integrated commerce agency helping consumer brands activate across all channels of commerce, with offices in Minneapolis, Bentonville, and Seattle.

About Zehner

Zehner is a full-service digital commerce agency that connects brands with consumers through strategic design and technology. Zehner crafts intuitive commerce experiences and digital products for fashion, lifestyle, and consumer brands.

About BVA 

BVA is a commerce agency that incubates and grows the DTC brands that people love. With the largest and most versatile client roster in the industry, the agency has launched more brands on Shopify Plus than any other agency and currently manages a client portfolio that generates nearly one billion dollars annually in gross merchandise volume (GMV).