September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › Marketing › Ecommerce marketing › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Ecommerce marketing for small business buyers

Asked as “ecommerce marketing platform”, and as “marketing tool for an online store”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 52 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
17%
Contested · Klaviyo 17%
17HubSpot Marketing Hub17Klaviyo15ActiveCampaign50others

17% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Klaviyo17%20%41accepted challenger
02HubSpot Marketing Hub17%25%28criticized challenger
03ActiveCampaign15%4%27accepted challenger
04Omnisend13%6%34accepted challenger
05Shopify12%18%34accepted challenger
06BigCommerce6%13%23accepted challenger
07WooCommerce6%14%22accepted challenger
08Square Online4%0%10accepted challenger
09Brevo2%4%24accepted challenger
10Wix2%18%11accepted challenger
11Mailchimp2%35%34criticized challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Google Analytics 4 Lab in the set0%0%11accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Google Analytics 4 is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Klaviyo17%
02HubSpot Marketing Hub17%
03ActiveCampaign15%
04Omnisend13%
05Shopify12%
06BigCommerce6%
07WooCommerce6%
08Square Online4%
09Brevo2%
10Wix2%
11Mailchimp2%
12Google Analytics 40%

What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Klaviyo
20%
8 of 41 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“The platform most small businesses should be most wary of is Klaviyo — its 2025 active-profile billing change makes costs unpredictable and punishing” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Mailchimp
35%
12 of 34 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“This is the primary example of a legacy giant changing its behavior in ways that hurt small budgets.... increasingly expensive for growing brands” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
HubSpot Marketing Hub
25%
7 of 28 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“the free plan has no marketing automation. To get automation, you need Marketing Hub Professional at ~$890/month plus a $3,000 onboarding fee” Kimi K2, direct prompt
Shopify
18%
6 of 34 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“best if you can spend a bit more for the fastest setup ... but it is usually not the cheapest option” Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

18 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 222 links across 135 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Shopify8 answers · 10 citations · 4 models
vendor site · BigCommerce7 answers · 8 citations · 4 models
vendor site · Stripe5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · YouTube4 answers · 10 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Sender4 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Drip4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Salesforce4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · HubSpot3 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model
vendor site · HubSpot3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models
3 answers · 3 citations · 1 model

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best ecommerce marketing platform”, “ecommerce marketing platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
HubSpot parent site
HubSpot Marketing Hub 17%, HubSpot Sales Hub 2%
19%991368,0009,776
Klaviyo klaviyo.com17%36590,5001,560200,057$572208
ActiveCampaign activecampaign.com15%43718,100307235,709$1,42432
Omnisend omnisend.com13%1999,90010851,545$11366
Shopify shopify.com
Shopify 12%, Shopify Email 0%
12%2991,000,00038,0673,486,997$3,351110
BigCommerce bigcommerce.com
BigCommerce 6%, BigCommerce B2B Edition 0%
6%1649,900989655,124$1,225115
WooCommerce woocommerce.com6%14622,2003,72688,616$2415
Square Online squareup.com4%599,9004653,658,565$999
Brevo brevo.com2%44040,50032781,741$17,847106
Wix wix.com2%185673,00021,8814,049,160$1,858119

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 14 sites; 1 of them are among the sites the models cited here (salesforce.com). The first result for “best ecommerce marketing platform” is ecomm.design.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best ecommerce marketing platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which marketing tool for an online store would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top ecommerce marketing platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ecommerce marketing platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an ecommerce marketing platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ecommerce marketing platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Three alternativesBigCommerce, HubSpot Marketing Hub, WooCommerce
against: Adobe Commerce, Shopify
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Mailchimp
Shopify
Two alternativesBigCommerce, Wix
Mailchimp
Four alternativesGoogle Shopping, Kit, Klaviyo, Meta Ads
no first choiceagainst: Squarespace Commerce, Wix
GPT-5.4 miniBigCommerce, Shopify
One alternativeHubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
One alternativeMailchimp
Omnisend
Three alternativesKlaviyo, Mailchimp, Shopify Email
against: Constant Contact
Brevo, Omnisendagainst: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyono first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Five alternativesBigCommerce, Klaviyo, Omnisend, Shopify, WooCommerce
ActiveCampaignChanged
Three alternativesBrevo, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo
Omnisend
Three alternativesBrevo, Klaviyo, Shopify Email
against: Mailchimp
Omnisend
Four alternativesBrevo, MailerLite, Sender, Shopify Email
against: Klaviyo
Klaviyo
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Omnisend, Sendlane
against: Salesforce Marketing Cloud
against: Adobe Experience Cloud, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Perplexity SonarShopify
One alternativeBigCommerce B2B Edition
against: WooCommerce
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Mailchimp
against: Adobe Marketo Engage, ZoomInfo
Shopify, Wix
Five alternativesKlaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend, Square Online, Squarespace Commerce
against: BigCommerce
Square Online, Wix
One alternativeWooCommerce
against: Shopify
no first choiceagainst: Adobe Commerce, Amazon Ads, BigCommerce, Meta Ads, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, WooCommerce, commercetools
Grok 4.20ActiveCampaign
Three alternativesDrip, Klaviyo, Omnisend
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
One alternativeActiveCampaign
against: Mailchimp
Omnisend, Privy
One alternativeKlaviyo
against: Mailchimp
Omnisend
Two alternativesBrevo, Mailchimp
against: Klaviyo
Klaviyo
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, Attentive, Drip, Omnisend
against: Google Ads, Klaviyo, Marketing 360, Meta Ads, Yelp Ads
Mistral SmallShopify
Four alternativesActiveCampaign, BigCommerce B2B Edition, HubSpot Marketing Hub, WooCommerce
ActiveCampaignChanged
Two alternativesDrip, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Omnisend, Shopify
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Wix
against: Mailchimp
BigCommerce
Six alternativesBuffer, Google Analytics 4, Mailchimp, Omnisend, Shopify, WooCommerce
Klaviyo, Omnisend
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo
against: Mailchimp, Omnisend, ReviewMeta, Trustpilot
DeepSeek V4 FlashBigCommerce, Shopify
Three alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
ActiveCampaignChanged
Five alternativesBrevo, Buffer, Canva, Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub
Omnisend
Six alternativesDrip, Google Analytics 4, Judge.me, Klaviyo, Shopify Email, Smile.io
against: LoyaltyLion, Mailchimp
Omnisend
Four alternativesBrevo, Klaviyo, MailerLite, Shopify Email
against: Mailchimp
Klaviyo, Omnisend
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, Drip
against: Braze, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Iterable, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud
against: ActiveCampaign, BigCommerce, Constant Contact, GetResponse, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Shopify, Squarespace Commerce, Wix
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceHubSpot Marketing HubChanged
One alternativeMailchimp
Shopify
Four alternativesBigCommerce, Square Online, Squarespace Commerce, Wix
no first choiceno first choiceagainst: Weebly
Qwen 3.7 FlashActiveCampaign
Two alternativesBigCommerce, HubSpot Marketing Hub
against: Klaviyo, Omnisend
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Two alternativesActiveCampaign, MailerLite
Klaviyo
Four alternativesBrevo, Drip, Mailchimp, Omnisend
Klaviyo
Seven alternativesBuffer, Canva, Google Analytics 4, MailerLite, Omnisend, Shopify, Wix
against: Ahrefs, Semrush
Klaviyo
Four alternativesAttentive, Customer.io, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Omnisend
against: Adobe Experience Cloud, Adobe Marketo Engage, Mailchimp
against: Amazon Ads, Brevo, GetResponse, Mailchimp, eBay
Kimi K2ActiveCampaign
Three alternativesBigCommerce, Brevo, Standard Shopify
against: HubSpot Marketing Hub, Shopify
ActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
Two alternativesApollo.io, Brevo
against: 6sense, Adobe Marketo Engage, Demandbase, Klaviyo
Omnisend
Six alternativesActiveCampaign, Brevo, Drip, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Sender
Square Online, WooCommerce
Seven alternativesBigCommerce, Buffer, Canva, Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Mailchimp, Omnisend
against: Shopify
Shopify
Two alternativesBigCommerce, Wix
against: Bazaarvoice, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Klaviyo, Shift4Shop, Shopify, Squarespace Commerce, Volusion, Wix eCommerce
GLM 4.7 FlashXKlaviyo
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, BigCommerce, Shopify
HubSpot Marketing HubChanged
One alternativeMailchimp
Shopify
Six alternativesBigCommerce, Ecwid, Square Online, Squarespace Commerce, Wix eCommerce, WooCommerce
Wix eCommerce
Five alternativesBuffer, Google Analytics 4, Mailchimp, Shift4Shop, WooCommerce
Klaviyo
Three alternativesActiveCampaign, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Omnisend
against: Adobe Commerce, Allegro, Amazon Ads, Ecwid, Etsy, PrestaShop, Squarespace Ecommerce, Volusion V1, Weebly Ecommerce, WooCommerce, Zen Cart, eBay, osCommerce
MiniMax M2.5WooCommerce
Two alternativesBigCommerce B2B Edition, Shopify
HubSpot Sales HubChanged
Three alternativesApollo.io, Hey Sid, SocialBee
Klaviyo
Three alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, Shopify
Shopify, WooCommerce
Three alternativesBig Cartel, Gumroad, Square Online
Klaviyo, Omnisend
One alternativeBrevo
against: Click Profit, Ecommerce Empire Builders
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:35no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:48yes45 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:31yes1625 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:04yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:03yes06 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:26yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:00yes036 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:47yes01 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:08yes099 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:43yes036 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:48yes031 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:43yes015 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:44no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:57yes43 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:45yes821 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:18yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:42yes05 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:34yes05 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:26yes015 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:57yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:26no037 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:29yes029 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:21yes012 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:43yes09 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:48yes1311 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:27yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:50yes1824 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:48yes2012 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:54yes08 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:49yes012 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:44yes021 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:18yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:32yes045 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:58yes046 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:49yes021 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:44yes035 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:50no04 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:50yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:47yes719 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:31yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:21yes010 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:42yes07 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:25yes025 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:13yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:11yes037 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:42yes041 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:10yes055 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:25yes024 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:57no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:11no05 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:10yes627 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:37yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:31yes010 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:47yes012 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:34yes038 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:30yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:23no037 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:21yes038 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:08yes052 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:33yes018 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:54yes109 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:33no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:36yes922 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:40yes205 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:27yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 05:03yes013 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:10yes073 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:27yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:01yes049 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:18yes061 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:28yes046 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:53yes023 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Amazon read as Amazon Ads
HubSpot read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot (Professional Tiers) read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
HubSpot Marketing Pro read as HubSpot Marketing Hub
Meta/Facebook read as Meta Ads
Meta/Facebook ads read as Meta Ads
Shopify Messaging read as Shopify Email
Squarespace read as Squarespace Commerce
TikTok read as TikTok Ads
Unresolved, counted raw
ReviewMeta
SAP
Shopify's built-in tools
Squarespace Ecommerce
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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