New cashback shopping site ShopBack starts blitz on cashback deals, but rival Cashrewards is ready

SHOPAHOLIC Jessica Chung hasn’t looked back since she started earning cash while shopping. Now, Australia’s war on cashback deals is heating up with close to 50 per cent up for grabs.

GETTING cash back while shopping sounds like a retail addict’s dream.

Now, the war in Australia’s online shopping rewards market is heating up, as newcomer ShopBack has launched its inaugural online shopping festival, ShopFest.

The festival features six major online sales from 1 November, 2018 to 3 January, 2019, which includes: Melbourne Cup, Singles Day, Click Frenzy, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 12 days of Christmas and End of Year sales.

ShopBack, which launched in Australia in May, now has more than 800 retail partners who offer cash back to customers who purchase from them by first entering the ShopBack site.

Australia is the latest country ShopBack has expanded to after starting up in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Customers get a percentage of cash back after selecting a store or product on the ShopBack site.

Once they go through to the retailer’s site and make a purchase, ShopBack is alerted to the transaction.

It then gives shoppers a percentage of cash back in their bank account. The cash given back to customers is part of a commission rate earned by ShopBack from its retail partners.

ShopBack Marketing Manager, Emily Lam, told News Corp Australia they want to provide customers with their “best bang for buck”.

“With Myer for example, we are having a flash sale on 5 November just before Melbourne Cup where we are offering triple cash back,” she said.

ShopBack's new ShopFest festival which has started. Picture: Supplied

“Myer has a three per cent cashback offer on purchases, so that would mean they’d [shoppers] get back nine per cent of what they spent.”

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are also expected to be bigger than before given their popularity overseas, and ShopBack is offering up to 49 per cent cashback deals from both global and local brands.

In the countdown to Christmas, Ms Lam said they are also holding an “advent calendar” of sales with cashback deals daily.

From Boxing Day to 3 January, there will be up to 30 per cent cash back and exclusive promotional codes from brands including David Jones and Booking.com.

Ms Lam also said they’ve just launched a cashback deal with UberEats, which offers new customers up to $10 off for using the food delivery service, while regular customers get $5 cash back.

Deals on the ShopBack website. Picture: Supplied

Ms Lam said the ShopBack app was also a key part to helping shoppers secure the best deals.

Leading brands on-board include eBay, Myer, THE ICONIC, Booking.com, Woolworths, Deliveroo and Chemist Warehouse.

Jessica Chung, 25, from Sydney, told News Corp Australia she has saved $200 in just five months by shopping with ShopBack.

Jessica Chung, 25, from Sydney loves shopping and getting cash back. Picture: Supplied

“I used to shop only on retail sites for clothes and other things but my friend signed me up to ShopBack. Now I find awesome deals online and get back a percentage of what I spend,” she said.

“I can’t go back to the other sites. I always have to look to see if I can get cash back. Already, I’ve saved $150 on booking a holiday to Europe.”

But ShopBack faces stiff competition from its biggest rival site, Cashrewards, which has nearly 500,000 users across Australia.

Some of the deals on Cashrewards website. Picture: Supplied

Cashrewards CEO Andrew Clarke told News Corp Australia that being the “biggest player” means retailers give their shoppers the “highest cashback rate”.

“We’ve given back nearly $50 million in the last four years that we’ve been operating and we have a lot of very happy customers,” he said.

“For Melbourne Cup we also have some promotions with our alcohol partners First Choice and Dan Murphy’s.”

Mr Clarke also said Cashrewards retailers have given back not 49, but up to 50 per cent on some shopping offers made to customers in the past.

“We are getting ready for the biggest online sales month in the year,” he said.

“We expect Black Friday to be the biggest sales day followed by Boxing Day, Click Frenzy and Singles Day. We think it’ll be neck-and-neck between Click Frenzy and Singles Day, which is the biggest shopping day in China. Australia has caught on to this and we will have deals that appeal.”

Mr Clarke said Cashrewards has also launched an app just two weeks ago, which also allows their online customers to get cash back rewards with around 40 retail partners when they also shop in-store.

“We don’t just offer cash back online anymore, we offer it when shoppers register their visa card and then shop in a store.”

Originally published as New cashback shopping site ShopBack starts blitz on cashback deals, but rival Cashrewards is ready