Acquity Group

Acquity Group was founded in 2001 by Chris Dalton, Paul Weinewuth, Scott Spear and Matt Schmeltz, who contracted with technology marketing agency BIGfrontier, in Chicago, to launch and grow the company Dalton, who was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009, is chief executive officer. Acquity Group filed for an IPO in 2012 and was listed on. the New York Stock Exchange. In May 2013, Acquity Group was acquired by Accenture for $316 million. Acquity Group is now a part of Accenture Interactive.

Acquity helps its clients use the Internet to increase sales and improve user-experience through an approach it pioneered, known as Brand eCommerce, which incorporates user-experience, creative design, back-end technical implementation and architecture.

Acquity's clients represent a broad base of B2B and B2C companies in a variety of industries. Past and present clients include Adobe, American Airlines, AT&T, Garmin, General Motors, McDonald's, Motorola, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Acquity's Brand eCommerce Audit is compiled annually and ranks commerce companies across six channels: big browser, mobile/tablet, social, in-store, search and email. Its inaugural report, released November 2012, analyzed Interbrand's "Best Retail Brands of 2012" and examined customer expectations across six channels.

In 2012, Acquity Brand eCommerce Audit's research revealed that 82 percent of retailers have a mobile optimized site, 72 percent have a mobile or tablet app, and 66 percent have both.