Alibaba invests in ShopRunner: Is this competition for Amazon Prime?

Former Yahoo CEO and now head of ShopRunner looks to be making his second deal with Chinese mega company Alibaba who with a reported 70 Million Dollar investment, for a minority stake in the company.

Yet with the $79 annual membership for free two day shipping from dozens of member retailers, ShopRunner is poising itself to challenge the rising popularity of Amazon’s service, Amazon Prime. And it seems with this new investment, ShopRunner has every intention of both expanding it’s profile, and raising the stakes in challenging Amazon Prime.

Take a look at ShopRunner participating stores to date: click here.

There is no doubt this could be an effective competitor with Amazon Prime, just as there is no doubt that in order to do so, ShopRunner is going to have to greatly expand both participating businesses and where these businesses are positioned in the market place if they want to make a dent in Amazon’s service.

It’s worth noting from this story  that perhaps the epic back-story behind the investment is worth noting and investigating.