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PriceRunner
Developer(s)Kristofer Arwin, Martin Alexanderson and Magnus Wiberg
Stable release
1.29.4 / 13 July 2006
Operating systemAny (web-based application)
TypePrice comparison service
Websitewww.pricerunner.com

PriceRunner is an independent product and price comparison service with 18.2 monthly users across all its markets. The website has 2.2 million products from 5 900 shops and is completely free to use. It allows users to compare prices on a range of products.[1] Beyond price and product comparison there are hundreds of product tests and guides. The company operates in the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.[2]


Operation

PriceRunner’s mission is to facilitate the online buying journey for consumers, and help them find the best products and offers on the market.[3] At PriceRunner there are hundreds of product tests, customer reviews of products and you can compare products, prices and delivery options from a wide variety of shops.[4] The tests are conducted by product experts over a long period of time to emulate the true intended usage of the product.[5]

PriceRunner does not sell any products, they make money by sending traffic to online shops and through banner advertising. PriceRunner has 175 employees and is currently active in Sweden, Denmark, the UK and Norway. Nicklas Storåkers is the company's CEO since 2016.[6]

In 2021 PriceRunner acquired Norwegian price comparison site Prisguiden in October and thereby expanded operations to Norway.[7]

History

PriceRunner was launched in Sweden in 1999 as a product and price comparison service by Kristofer Arwin, Martin Alexandersson and Magnus Wiberg. The investment was financed by Cell Ventures, who were later acquired by NewMedia Spark.

In 2000 it launched the service in the UK and Denmark.

In August 2004, it was acquired by ValueClick, an online media company, for £16 million ($29 million) after NewMedia Spark sold its share in the company.

Further expansion saw PriceRunner reopen the French office in August 2004, go into Germany in October of the same year,[8] and the United States in October 2005. It also launched awards for Merchant of the year based on its customer reviews.[9]

In October 2006, MSN announced that their Shopping sites in France and the UK would be powered by PriceRunner and Shopping.com. They had previously been powered by Kelkoo.

In 2007- 2008 PriceRunner also set up partnerships with Ask, the Energy Saving Trust,[10] MSN and Which? providing them with shopping engines for their websites. It also partnered with Nectar to offer Nectar Points.[11] PriceRunner launches its first apps for iOS and Android. The company starts migrating [the technical platform] to Shanghai in October of 2008.

In 2009, PriceRunner launches the first mobile-friendly website. The US platform was shut down in the same year in conjunction with the efforts to migrate to the technical Shanghai-platform.

In November 2013, ValueClick sold its global media properties (including Investopedia, Coupon Mountain and PriceRunner) to IAC for a reported $80 million.

In March 2016, PriceRunner was sold to Swedish firm NS Intressenter.[12] Barry Diller of IAC had initially been looking for "roughly $100 million", although the actual sale figure was not disclosed publicly. PriceRunner once again gets Swedish owners when the investment company Nordstjernan, Karl-Johan Persson, Nicklas Storåkers and Mikael Lindahl acquire the company. In July PriceRunner acquires “EDB Priser” and in September PriceRunner acquires product testing operation “Bäst-i-Test.”

In 2017, PriceRunner launches a new design for the platform. In December the company closes its office in Shanghai.

In 2018, PriceRunner launches a new upgraded platform in the UK. PriceRunner launches the e-commerce index, which measures patterns among e-merchants in Denmark and Sweden.

In 2019, PriceRunner launches its first data & analysis service.

As of 2020, Nicklas Storåkers, CEO, and the investment firm eEquity have purchased Nordstjernans ownership stake in the company, with one of PriceRunner's founders, Magnus Wiberg returning as an executive board member.[13]

During 2021, PriceRunner launches several updates such as comparison of delivery options and costs, buying guides to help consumers find the right product and managing of versions on more than a third of all products. PriceRunner acquired Norwegian price comparison site Prisguiden in Oktober and thereby expanded operations to Norway.[14]

PriceRunner in media

Ahead of Black Friday 2021[15], PriceRunner reported to the Press Association in October how Brits are concerned the products they may want to buy for Black Friday might not be available due to transport problems, and that prices have already started to increase ahead of November 27th as reported in outlets such as the Independent[16]. During the summer, PriceRunner was also featured in several outlets such as the Daily Record[17] regarding their 12-month analysis on when new parents should buy baby products during the year, in order to get more for their money. PriceRunner was also featured in gardening news sites such as Local Gardener, reporting on the most popular lawnmowers in the UK and the increased interest for robotic and ride-on lawnmowers during the summer months.[18]

During other times of the year, PriceRunner regularly features in new stories regarding Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when a lot of people are using price comparison sites.[19]

Technology

PriceRunner uses a combination of screen scraping retailers' websites and files supplied by the retailers themselves. These prices are matched against a backend database. This is done both by using a fuzzy logic auto matching system and manually by admin staff.

Business model

PriceRunner is similar to other price comparison services in that it is financed by advertisers, who pay on a pay per click model. It also uses web banners provided by sister company, advertising network ValueClick Media.

References

  1. ^ PriceRunner. "About Us". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  2. ^ PriceRunner. "About Us". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  3. ^ PriceRunner. "About Us". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  4. ^ PriceRunner. "About Us". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  5. ^ PriceRunner. "About Us". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  6. ^ PriceRunner. "About Us". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  7. ^ PriceRunner. "About Us". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  8. ^ [1] Archived 25 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Whipp, Matt (23 March 2006). "Pricerunner announces its retailers of the year". PC Pro. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  10. ^ Crawley-Boevey, Sarah (19 November 2007). "PriceRunner strikes energy deal". MediaWeek. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  11. ^ Kemp, Ed (15 February 2008). "Nectar partners with PriceRunner". Marketing Magazine. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ PriceRunner. "History". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  14. ^ "New acquisition for PriceRunner". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  15. ^ "Black Friday". www.pricerunner.com. PriceRunner.
  16. ^ "Independent". www.idependent.co.uk. Independent.
  17. ^ "Daily Record". www.dailyrecord.co.uk. Daily Record.
  18. ^ "Local Gardener". www.localgardener.org. Local Gardener.
  19. ^ "The Sun". www.thesun.co.uk. The Sun.

Further reading

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