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How often do you shop online?
From daily shopping to special occasion shopping, online shopping has added value to our way of shopping.
Especially during the pandemic, online shopping has been a huge help to us. In fact, one of the marketing research companies reports that e-commerce in 2020 ended up in more sales than anticipated during the pandemic.
Online shopping has now become an indispensable part of our lives.
I love online shopping.
I love the convenience of it. When you need something, you can search and buy it with few clicks from your cozy couch. Also, I love the availability of products online shopping provides. You can find and buy things at online stores that are not sold at local shopping malls or retail stores. Moreover, a lot of times online shopping saves you money by offering lower prices than physical stores because of lower logistics costs.
A Smart way to shop online
Online shopping already gives us a lot of value by itself, but if there is a way to receive even more benefits, would you be interested in using it?
If you use online shopping even just a little, have you ever tried shopping through cashback apps? If you haven’t, I strongly recommend starting using them right away.
Instead of going directly to an online store to make a purchase, you can simply go to the same online store through a cashback app (site) and make a purchase. Then, you will receive cashback after purchasing from the cashback app. The website of the online store is the same whether you access it directly or through the cashback app. If you can get cashback just by going to the online store through the cashback app, don’t you think it’s worth a try?
How can CashBack Apps (sites) give us cashback?
Because they get commissions from the online stores they have partnerships with.
Each cashback app (site) operates a platform for online stores. It is like a shopping mall that rents locations to various stores. By using this platform, an online store can reach more customers and potentially make more sales. In return, when a customer purchases a product on the shopping site through the cashback app’s platform, the online store pays a commission to the cashback app provider. Then the cashback app provider shares a portion of the commission with the customer rather than taking it all as thanks for shopping through their websites.
So it’s a win-win-win for the online store, the cashback app, and the customer.
1. Online stores: They get more customers.
2. Cashback app: They earn money even though they yield some of it to its users.
3. Customers: They get some money back by shopping at the online stores through the cashback apps.
When I first learned this, I was just amazed by its business model. And ever since, I am benefitting a lot through the cashback apps.
Rakuten, one of the Leading Cashback Apps
There are many cashback apps. Right now, I mainly use Ibbota, Swagbucks, and Rakuten. I only mention products and services which I feel safe and enjoy using. I would love to talk about Ibbota and Swagbucks sometime soon, but today I’d like to talk about Rakuten in particular.
Rakuten is one of the leading cashback apps. You may have seen it in TV commercials.
There are over 2,500 stores (as of February 2021) to choose from with Rakuten. Of course, there are famous stores like Macy’s, Target, Nike, Kate Spade, and even travel reservation sites like Expedia and Uber. I am sure you can find your favorite stores. Moreover, you can get cashback with in-store shopping as well. Sometimes you just want to go to the actual store and try the products and then buy them, right? Even with that case, you could get cashback!
I absolutely love using Rakuten.
In addition to the tremendous number of stores Rakuten does business with, there are 2 other reasons why I love Rakuten.
1. The app is so clean and super easy to use.
I’m not a tech gal. It took me so long to set up this blog site, Everyday Penny Creative, and I’m still figuring out how to maximize it. Even to me who is not tech-savvy, Rakuten is so easy to use.
Have you ever encountered an app in which the concept is really good and each feature is really good but when they are put together, it’s a little confusing?
Well, that is NOT the case with Rakuten. Rakuten is super straightforward and you will know instantly what you can do. I praise the designers of Rakuten.
Can you see these sites are almost the same? The only difference is that the cashback percentage is shown in the upper left corner and how many deals are offered in the lower right corner on the one through Rakuten.
2. It often offers many good cashback opportunities, especially around special occasion seasons.
Another thing I like about Rakuten is that it often offers good cashback opportunities. Usually, it has a basic cashback percentage or dollar amount for each store, but it often increases the percentages and amounts. And especially for special occasion seasons, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and so on, Rakuten gets even more generous. And My husband and I really benefited from its generosity last Christmas. Now we can buy something we want with the cashback we got.
Just like other apps, Rakuten has a notification feature to let you know there are good offers. I keep this notification on so that I won’t miss good deals.
I think the only drawback with Rakuten is that it pays you cashback only 4 times a year, which is every 3 months and you have to have at least $5 in your account. It’s not that you can withdraw money any time you want. However, it’s fun and motivating to see the cash you get back grows in your account. If you use Rakuten smartly, you can get a chunk of money back every 3 months.
A Smarter Way to Shop using Rakuten
Rakuten, as well as other cashback apps, gives its users cashback as its own program. This is separate from the sales and discounts that online stores offer occasionally. So, if you go to online stores through Rakuten and buy products while the online stores are having sales and discounts, you can purchase the products at lower prices AND get cashback. It’s a very good deal, isn’t it?
Using Rakuten is already a smart way to shop online, but taking advantage of online stores’ sales while using Rakuten is an even smarter way to shop online.
My husband and I can no longer shop without at least checking Rakuten first. And we’ve benefited a lot from using Rakuten. We are Rakuten lovers!
Install Rakuten and shop now, get a $30 welcome bonus!
Are you interested in Rakuten? Be sure to install the app from here and get a $30 welcome bonus after qualifying purchase within 90 days!
*This applies to referrals who live in Canada or the US only.
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