ShopRunner, which operates a membership-based two-day shipping service and an app-based online marketplace, has bought fraud-prevention service Precognitive. ShopRunner plans to provide the Precognitive product for free to its network of about 140 retailers.
Precognitive’s technology combines device intelligence, advanced behavioral analytics and a real-time decision engine to help companies more accurately identify online fraud. The fraud-prevention service, founded in 2016, is used by retailers, as well as companies in the banking, financial services, travel and entertainment sectors. Precognitive will continue its non-retail lines of business following the acquisition.
The Precognitive acquisition is part of ShopRunner’s effort to add to the technology and data services that ShopRunner offers to its retail partners, says CEO Sam Yagan.
“We want to be a marketing and technology partner to retailers,” he says. To do that, ShopRunner seeks to provide retailers with a host of services, data, technology such as out-of-stock notifications and cart-abandonment tools. It is also looking for other ways to add value. For example, it is testing same-day delivery in New York with women’s apparel retailer Ann Taylor, which is part of Ascena Retail Group, No. 73 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000.
The company also announced that UPS Inc. invested in ShopRunner as part of the company’s $40 million funding round announced in October. As part of the deal, ShopRunner aims for UPS to offer free ShopRunner memberships to members of the UPS My Choice program, a service that gives consumers more control over their residential deliveries. However, details on that relationship have not been worked out, he says. August Capital invested $30 million in the funding round.
In November, ShopRunner launched District by ShopRunner, a mobile app-based online marketplace. District features a number of high-profile brands with which ShopRunner already works—including Neiman Marcus, No. 43 in the Top 1000; Burberry, No. 475; and Harry & David, No. 66. The marketplace app features items from about 140 retailers and includes a real-time feed that presents shoppers with products selected based on the user’s past actions.
The launch of District came just about a month after ShopRunner bought Spring, an online marketplace that features 1,500 brands and more than 200,000 SKUs on its platform.
In 2018, ShopRunner members spent more than $2 billion in the network, the company says.
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