Rakuten, a Japanese electronic commerce and Internet company, has acquired e-commerce app Slice for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition is part of the retailer’s attempt to foray into US market. The Japanese retailer believes that the acquisition will broaden its product offerings.
Slice compiles user’ e-mail in-boxes for receipts from Amazon, Nordstrom and other e-commerce sites to consolidate their purchase history, send alerts about package shipments and monitor price changes to help users obtain subsequent rebates.
Rakuten Marketing CEO Yaz Iida said: "We have a vision to grow our business in the U.S. There’s tremendous value in this technology to any company doing business online.
"It all comes down to customer data," Iida added.
Slice, which is based in Palo Alto, California, previously received investments from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Rakuten.
Rakuten, controlled by Japan’s fourth-richest man Hiroshi Mikitani, acquired Viber for $900m in February.
In second quarter, Rakuten witnessed 9% decrease in operating profit, due to weaker trading volumes on its Internet finance platform.
