Connexity Snatches Up Retail Lead-Generation Site PriceGrabber

Retail and marketing services company Connexity, parent company of shopping price-comparison site ShopZilla, announced yesterday (June 16) its acquisition of PriceGrabber, a retail lead-generation platform and network.

The PriceGrabber shopping-focused publisher network provides retailers access to high intent shoppers from leading online shopping destinations like Yahoo!, Ask.com and PriceGrabber.com.

“We are pleased to combine forces with one of the most respected lead-generation companies in retail,” Connexity CEO Bill Glass said in a company release. “Our two companies are industry pioneers and putting these exceptional teams together is going to create a powerful retail marketing platform for the future.”

Although terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, the newly combined company will take its place as one of the world’s largest sources of shopping leads, resulting in over $2 billion in annual sales for retailers and brands, Connexity said.

While Google holds the top spot as the largest product listing aggregator, VentureBeat reported that the acquisition of PriceGrabber puts Connexity “among the frontrunners for second or third place.”

And this latest consolidation is a “clear sign that the giants of eCommerce have nudged the more traditional price-comparison portals down a few levels,” they added.

The company said retailers will experience the benefit of the consolidation by only having to manage a single channel going forward, which it hopes will simplify marketing efforts and increase sales.

“Online marketing is complicated, especially with so many distribution channels and sub-channels. Connexity’s broader mission is to simplify customer acquisition and retention for retail-focused marketers. This is a great step forward toward that goal and will give retailers seamless access to multiple selling platforms,” Glass said.

“For consumers, this combination will maximize the breadth and depth of product content within both our comparison shopping sites and our syndication network,” he continued. “For publishers, it will create a simplified solution to get their product content and monetization from a single API or feed, creating efficiency in the channel, and simplifying tracking and reporting.”

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