Commerce Bancshares Inc. in Kansas City, Mo., has hired Alliance Data Systems Corp.'s Epsilon unit to manage a marketing campaign, the Dallas company has announced.
Epsilon will develop and oversee marketing programs to gain customers for Commerce Bank's retail business, Alliance Data said on Monday. The programs include direct mail campaigns, as well as "analytic services for developing customer models and campaign support."
The $17 billion-asset Commerce has about 350 sites. The multiyear agreement's term was not disclosed.
Separately, Alliance Data released more information Wednesday about the private-label portfolio it has agreed to buy from Charming Shoppes Inc. for $40 million in cash. The Bensalem, Pa., retailer of plus-size women's apparel said Monday that it was selling some receivables to Alliance Data in conjunction with a deal to sell the related catalog businesses to Orchard Brands, a Beverly, Mass., unit of the private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital Inc.
Alliance Data said Wednesday that it has signed a "long-term" agreement with Orchard Brands to fully manage the catalog businesses' private-label programs. (The agreement's exact length was not disclosed.) It said that another Orchard property, the catalog retailer Blair Corp., is already a private-label client.
