Shopback The Most Efficient Way To Shop Online?

Shopback front page

E commerce cash back sites are quite common in the US, but quite unheard of in Singapore. Hence a local startup company brought the concept here in Singapore and ShopBack was born. This is not a paid ad, just something good I wanted to share.

How it works is quite simple. You register your email and create a password, then log in, Once you are in, click on one of the popular e commerce sites that are listed(Zalora, Asos, Taobao(just listed), Foodpanda, Groupon, Rakuten, Expedia, Hotel.com, they have got over 300 stores listed.)

Then purchase your 'stuff' through the sites as per normal and you will get cashback within 48 hours once the transactions are approved. Cashback can be up to 30% or more(current promotion has cashback of up to 50%). The cashback percentage of each store will be listed accordingly. The catch is once the rebates are in, you will have to wait 30-60 days before you can transfer them into your bank account.

A tip here is to always choose direct bank crediting for the cash backs(have to input your bank account and bank name) as compared to the Paypal option as Paypal charges a percentage for payment receivers so its not as good. Besides cashback, it also offers deals and coupon codes.

This site is good as it gives you additional cash back on top of your Frank 6% or Singpost SCB 7% rebate. Do note, for NTUC members, remember to also link your linkpoint account as you will get link points for every purchase through this site. If you are planning to buy stuff at one of the e commerce merchant sites listed, there is no reason not to shop through this site to get the additional cash back.

The business model for Shopback is basically finding popular merchants to be listed, then drive traffic to the site to bring in customers that in turn will buy stuff through those listed merchants via the Shopback portal. The merchants will in turn give Shopback commission for the referral and Shopback will then give part of the commission back to the customers as cashback.

I am quite amused by the potential of getting at least 16-20% cash back rebates from just using this site(combine with your credit card). I don't think there are other more efficient ways to shop online, if there are please do share.