Webloyalty, an online marketing services company, has acquired San Francisco-based online payment platform company Lift Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Webloyalty, based in Norwalk, CT, said the deal would help reduce shopping cart abandonment and elevate purchase conversion rates for its online retail clients.
Rick Fernandes, Webloyalty CEO and co-founder, said the synergy between the two companies’ infrastructure and technology will help online retailers convert online window shoppers into paying customers.
“This will get people to finish the transaction, because people love a good deal,” he explained.
Webloyalty works with about 150 e-commerce sites in the US to help increase incremental revenue and repeat purchases, according Fernandes.
Lift Media’s payment platform, CheckoutFree, gives online consumers the option to receive products or services for free or at discounted prices by agreeing to buy or sample other products offered by various advertisers.
Lift Media will now be a division within Webloyalty, with its CEO, Jonathan Murray, leading the division.
Fernandes said the company plans on hiring between 10 and 20 new employees by the end of the year to help fill out the new division.
He noted that Webloyalty had hired an outside firm to poll its clients about their needs, and many responded that a priority was to reduce shopping cart abandonment.
The company then thought about building its own division to handle this, but found it easier and more time-efficient to acquire an existing company.
“Webloyalty partners closely with its clients. We listen and respond to their business needs. Feedback from our partners was a key factor in driving our decision to make this strategic acquisition,” said Fernandes.
Lift Media’s proprietary optimization engine matches consumers to the most relevant offers by analyzing general information on the consumer, the product being purchased and the size of the purchase, said Murray.
“All of our existing and potential clients will benefit from our mutual commitments to increase conversation rates and diminish shopping cart abandonment,” said Murray.
