Japan's Rakuten Acquires Ecommerce App Slice

Online retailer Rakuten has acquired Slice, a popular U.S.-based application that the company hopes will help it challenge ecommerce powerhouses including eBay and Amazon.

The Slice shopping assistant compiles/saves information such as ecommerce receipts (from users email), tracks packages, and alerts shoppers to price drops (as well as when they are eligible for refunds due to price adjustments). This "big picture" view of customer spending and purchase history is an incredibly valuable asset for Rakuten, who is perpetually looking for ways to more forcefully break into the U.S. market.

The app is free for consumers to download and use, charges a fee to websites to use and to access the customer data it collects.

Further reading on Rakuten at Website Magazine:
- Bright Ideas for Performance Marketing
- Network in Focus: Rakuten Linkshare 
- Rakuten Gives Marketers a Better View into Channels