Just when you thought shopping online couldn’t get any better—with all those amazing deals and finds—it does.
That’s where ShopBack—a one-stop reward and discovery platform—comes in. Essentially, ShopBack is a platform that offers money back on top of discounts that individuals already enjoy from their online purchases. And what’s more, they get that ShopBack discount in cash, as opposed to getting them through rewards points.
“We’re like a piggy bank. You order food online, get a ride, or book a hotel, ShopBack gives you cash. It’s earning while you spend,” said Prashant Kala, ShopBack country head.
Using ShopBack is easy. Users only need to download the ShopBack app, go through the one-time registration, and proceed to choose the app or website they want to use. They would then be redirected to where they can go about their online transactions as they normally would. Alternatively, users may also access ShopBack on their desktop computers and through the ShopBack Chrome Extension.
To collect or withdraw the money individuals had earned in ShopBack, users only need to link a bank account or a PayPal account.
“Those little earnings could easily add up. Before you know it, you’ve earned hundreds of pesos,” said Kala. During the interview, the executive even showed the Inquirer his personal ShopBack account which showed, among others, a transaction where he earned more than P6,000 in cash backs by booking a hotel for a trip in Europe.
In the Philippines, ShopBack users stand to earn as much as 35 percent in cash backs. At times, ShopBackers (as they are fondly called) earn a fixed amount per transaction. Booking a ride through Grab, for example, gives individuals P5 cash back. Any promo codes within Grab, or any partner merchant for that matter, is not affected by the use of ShopBack.
Since launching in the country four years ago, ShopBack has become a strong marketing channel for Lazada, Zalora, Shopee, FoodPanda, Agoda, and Booking.com.
Aside from the Philippines, ShopBack has a dominant presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Australia.
In 2018, ShopBack saw 250 percent year-on-year growth in orders and sales. The company powered over 2.5M monthly transactions for more than 7M users in eight Asia Pacific countries and delivered close to $1B sales for over 2,000 merchant partners in both the online and offline spaces.
“We want to help people make smarter choices. We want them to use ShopBack as a decision-making app. Our goal in the next 18 to 24 months is to have ShopBack be the Filipinos’ first stop when making purchases online,” Kala said.
In the Philippines, ShopBack saw a 900 percent increase in the number of users last year, propelled by traffic that grew by nearly 10 times in the last quarter of 2018. With a more visible yet subtle approach to marketing, ShopBack continues to sustain a month-on-month growth of up to 75 percent.
Most recently, ShopBack secured $45M in its latest funding round, with participants that include EV Growth and Rakuten Capital, as well as EDBI, the corporate investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board. The new capital injection brings the company’s total funding to $83M.
Kala said that ShopBack would use the newly secured funds to ensure 10-star user experience for ShopBackers, better understand merchant behavior, and bring more cashback opportunities to ShopBackers.
The future looks promising for ShopBack. Merchants are very open to partner with them, Filipinos are mature enough to understand the ShopBack concept and they are increasingly making more online transactions.
Kala said: “For now, we want Filipinos to know that we’re here and that they should try ShopBack right now because they would be amazed with the savings they’ll get. ShopBack is easy and simple to use. It’s free—they’ve got nothing to lose and cash to earn.”
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