Rakuten buys data analytics engine for marketing arm

The PopShops platform and tools allow more than 4,000 advertisers and 25,000 publishers to access information on millions of online retail products from a single source.

Rakuten said the company, now known as Rakuten PopShops, would complement the marketing firm’s portfolio of digital marketing technologies and services, which include affiliate marketing, display, lead generation, loyalty, retargeting, and search marketing.

“Having built a long-standing partnership with PopShops, we were already impressed with the quality of its analytics engine and ability to help drive online sales,” said Yaz Iida, chief executive officer, Rakuten Marketing. “Through this acquisition, we’ll continue to outpace the competition and strengthen our assets across all of the vital areas of digital marketing that will benefit from PopShops’s powerful analytics engine.”

All Rakuten PopShops employees will remain with the company at its headquarters in Seattle and report to Rohinee Mohindroo, president, Rakuten PopShops.