Google Shopping Acquires Rangespan To Provide Supply Chain Benefits
By Ally Orlando, contributing writer
Soon retailers and retail marketers may have a means to measure analytics and manage supply chain inventories through Google Shopping.
In a move to build its e-commerce business, Google has acquired Rangespan, a back-office services provider for online retailers such as Tesco and Asda, BBC News reports. The London-based company employs data science and real-time sales dynamics to expand its customers’ product selections.
In the last three years, Rangespan tracked hundreds of millions of products and automated supplier management to reduce the cost related to running e-commerce sites. The company was co-founded in 2011 by Matt Henderson, a former director of merchant services at Amazon, and Ryan Regan, former CFO of Last.fm and Amazon employee of 8 years, according to a Bloomberg article.
The company’s services will be shut down and integrated into the Google Shopping retail portal.
In an emailed statement, Google explained that Rangespan will join its Shopping unit and its employees will focus on retail analytics. Regan said some employees will move on to work for Google, but would not disclose the terms of the deal or the number of employees who will join Google, reports say.
“There are a lot of parallels between what we are doing and what Google is doing and we are excited to work together,” Regan says.
Rangespan’s homepage addresses the acquisition, stating: “We are very happy to announce that Rangespan is joining Google. We will continue to work on services for shoppers and retailers at Google, and we’re super excited about the opportunities to come. As part of the change, we will wind down Rangespan’s services. We’ve already begun working individually with each of our retailers and suppliers on this process.”
By integrating Rangespan’s services, Google will be able to provide inventory management benefits to both retailers and marketers. Specifically, Rangespan software allows users to analyze market data to determine which products to keep or remove from their selection.
Using these services, businesses may be able to leverage big data to better manage their inventory.