I’m going to talk about Rakuten (formerly Ebates), the website (Rakuten.com), which is by far the most comfortable shopping rebate service I’ve ever used! But the introduction of them on the Internet is different, so I am going to write the most comprehensive introduction to Rakuten, so that you can fall in love with it without any obstacles.
Rakuten’s Invitation Bonus becomes $30, click here or the button below to get started:
what is a shopping reward
Usually, our online shopping is the following process:
Go to website -> find product -> add to cart -> checkout
The discounts we can get in this process are only provided by the merchants. But there is another way to get additional benefits in this process, and that is to use a rebate site. In this way, the new shopping flow becomes:
Enter the rebate network -> enter the merchant website -> find the product -> add to the shopping cart -> checkout
Then the rebate network will track the amount of your purchase this time and return a portion of the purchase amount to you.
For example, for a product of $100, if the cashback ratio is 15%, the cashback network will return $15 to your account, which is equivalent to $85 to win the product.
Many people will wonder, how can such a rebate network make money? This involves the partnership (affiliation) between the rebate network and the merchant. Usually, if you enter the corresponding merchant to shop through the rebate network, the merchant will also return the corresponding amount to the rebate network, and the rebate network will take part of it out to the user to achieve a win-win situation. Taking the above example as an example, the merchant may give 20% cashback (that is, $20) to the cashback network, and the cashback network will give you $15 and keep $5 for yourself, which is your own profit. This is a win-win partnership.
How to achieve rebate
Let’s take the Coach bag as an example, walk through the process, and everyone will know how to do it. Of course, you first need to have a Rakuten.com account and log in, if not you can register via this link, or see the registration guide at the end of this article.
First open Rakuten.com, enter Coach in the input field above and press Enter, the search results will appear:
We can see that Coach offers a 5% rebate. Then click the “Shop Now” button corresponding to the Coach on the far right, and the following interface will appear:
We can see that there is a Shopping Trip ID #1564835468, indicating that Rakuten has recorded your visit. Then you will come to the official Coach.com website. At this time, remember to never close this page or re-enter directly during the shopping process, otherwise the cashback will not be tracked. Next is normal shopping, as usual. After shopping, we go back to Rakuten, enter the Shopping Trips in our account, and we can see the record of our purchase.
Cashback will generally appear here within 1-2 hours (up to 2 days). In case it doesn’t show up, you can submit a ticket to customer service. You can take a look at my recent cashback record:
Sometimes some merchants will offer some anti-sky cashback ratios, such as the last Coach in the picture above, the cashback ratio is as high as 14%! It’s just 15% off!
In-Store Cashback
The process is very simple, just need the APP to link your own credit card. Then activate the corresponding cashback before spending in the physical store, and then swipe the card to spend, and the cashback will be automatically tracked!
As long as you activate the cashback offer before checkout in the store, you can watch Rakuten’s mobile app while shopping. If this store has cashback, you can activate it at checkout.
Browser plug-in (Rakuten Button)
It would be too much trouble to search for merchants on Rakuten every time you make a purchase, so Rakuten has launched a browser plug-in (supports Chrome and Firefox), if the merchant you are browsing supports cashback, the plug-in will be displayed on the merchant page. Cashback rate and reminder to activate cashback, just click to activate, as shown below:
In addition, if the current merchant supports coupons, Rakuten Button will also considerately list all currently available coupons, discount codes, promotions, etc. for reference.
Cashback period
There is a problem to be pointed out, the cash returned is recorded in the account, but cannot be used immediately. Rakuten has four unified withdrawal times each year (see the figure below), for example, May 15 will issue a cashback between Jan 1 – Mar 31:
According to Mr. Wool’s experience, if you use PayPal to withdraw cash, you don’t have to wait until that date. For example, if the withdrawal is stipulated on May 15, it may be received on May 10.
Withdrawal method
Currently, Rakuten supports the following ways to withdraw cash:
- PayPal (most convenient)
- mail check
- Through Amex Membership Rewards (MR) points return, this needs to be set to Amex MR points in the payment method settings, and then the subsequent consumption cashback will directly return the points
Registration Guide
Registering through our link can get an additional $30 cash reward, which can be obtained by using a cashback after registration, see the picture below.
Recommended by similar platforms
We have recommended and introduced many cashback websites, each with its own characteristics and different registration rewards. Here is a summary for your reference and comparison:
| Website | Sign up bonus | Registration Link | Feedback | Recommended |
| Fetch | $2 | Click here | Easier to have free offer,code “P7Y51A” | ★★★ |
| Rakuten | $30 | Click here | The most reliable, good customer service | ★★★★★ |
| TopCashback | $15-$25 | Click here | The cashback rate is almost the highest in the entire network | ★★★★★ |
| RebatesMe | $35 | Click here | Great reward，code “MONEYFREE” | ★★★ |
| Ibotta | $10 | Click here | Support multiple merchants, easy to operate | ★★★★ |
| fluz | 35% cashback coupons | Click here | Support multi-platform rebates, the rebate performance is average | ★★ |
