Ebates aims for stronger mobile position

Online cashback shopping platform Ebates is branching more heavily into the mobile shopping arena with the acquisition of mobile product discovery app Shopular.



Redwood City, California-based Shopular has more than a million users and offers an intuitive product discovery experience and mobile shopping alerts. Leveraging proprietary geo-targeting technology, the app notifies consumers with relevant deals and coupons when they are near select stores.



Following the acquisition by San Francisco, San Francisco-based Ebates, a subsidiary of global Internet services company Rakuten, Shopular will introduce cash back shopping to its users. Founders Navneet Loiwal and Tommy Tsai will remain with the company as general managers of the Shopular business, leading technology development and the cash back integration.



Ebates hopes the acquisition will strengthen its position in the mobile shopping category by offering its shoppers relevant deals and coupons directly on their mobile phones. Terms were not disclosed.



“Shopular is the perfect partner to help us maximize our growth in the online and mobile commerce category,” said Kevin H. Johnson, CEO of Ebates. “With today’s consumers going mobile, it’s more important than ever to provide the right technologies to help them get the best deals, at the right time, as quickly as possible. We believe that the addition of Shopular to the Ebates family is the next step to making this happen.”



Ebates also recently launched an integration that will let its users make purchases from e-commerce platform Shopify. Clearly the company is looking to expand its reach across various digital platforms, which in today’s highly fragmented online marketplace is not a bad idea.