Everything You Wanted to Know About Cashback Websites But Were Scared to Ask!

Everything You Wanted to Know About Cashback Websites But Were Scared to Ask!

You’re no doubt familiar with coupon sites such as CouponRaja and CouponDunia. There are hundreds of coupon websites in India. But there is a new game in town. We are talking about cashback websites, of course.

The concept of “cashback” is so simple and elegant that it’s surprising that it’s only now that these types of websites have become popular with online shoppers in India. What’s a cashback site, you ask? Well, it’s pretty simple.

Cashback sites such as Cashfat.com , started by a 25-year old Indian entrepreneur from Gujarat, Ishat Bhatt, pay you a cash reward every time you click on a special link on them to buy a product at online stores such as Flipkart , Amazon India or Snapdeal.

Cashfat has partnered with 500 online stores across India, including with some of the biggest names in Indian ecommerce such as Flipkart, Amazon India , Snapdeal, Abof, TataCLIQ, AJIO, Adda52, American Swan, IndianGiftsPortal, Myntra, Infibeam, AskMeBazaar, Lenskart, Nykaa and many more.

So, every time you buy a pair of jeans on Flipkart, or a smartphone on Amazon India, after visiting them through the special Flipkart or Amazon India link on Cashfat, your purchase gets tracked and you will be rewarded a cashback of 3% to 10% of the purchase a few days after the completion of the sale.

You can withdraw this money from your Cashfat account to your bank once it crosses the threshold of Rs. 250. Of course, you’ll need to sign up with Cashfat first – that’s an easy thing to do and takes up less than a minute of your time.

You don’t have to pay anything for the membership and really, you don’t have to pay anything at all to Cashfat. But isn’t that free money? What does Cashfat hope to gain from this arrangement?

Well, it’s really quite simple – every time a buyer visits an online store such as Flipkart from the special link on Cashfat and makes a purchase, Flipkart sends a commission to Cashfat for leading them there, after the completion of the sale. Unlike most coupon sites that keep this money with themselves, Cashfat keeps only a small part of it and gives the rest of it to the buyer – as a “cashback”.

Cashback sites are nothing new in the UK where online shoppers regularly earn an average cashback of £120 on popular sites such as Quidco and TopCashback.

Most of the cashback sites in India, including Cashfat, are based on this business model. With online shopping set to explode in India, the demand for such services that help buyers earn at least some money back every time they shop can only be expected to rise as well.