ShopRunner, the free-shipping program offered by 60 e-retailers, will extend its reach into online shopping services with the acquisition of ShopSanity, a company that helps consumers organize their retail receipts and keep up with retailers offers. ShopRunner declined to reveal what it will pay for ShopSanity.
ShopRunner charges consumers an annual fee of $79 to participate in a program that offers free two-day shipping on all orders from participating retailersenabling merchants to compete against the similar Amazon Prime program from Amazon.com Inc., No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. In the past year, ShopRunner has been adding to its services, including a ReturnRunner program launched last fall that lets a consumer return a package by printing out a return label from ShopRunner.com, attaching it to the original package received from a participating ShopRunner retailer, and leaving it at her mailbox for pickup by the US Postal Service.
By acquiring ShopSanity, ShopRunner will be able to offer online shoppers greater convenience. ShopSanity compiles Yahoo and Gmail e-mailed receipts that consumers receive from online retailers, providing consumers with a way to organize and review their purchases. It also compiles aggregated but anonymous data through such e-mail records of what those consumers are paying for products, enabling it to report on where consumers are getting the best deals. ShopSanity can also process receipts sent via other e-mail systems, such as Microsofts Hotmail, if consumers have them forwarded through Gmail.