Companies in general and online shopping networks in particular can give cash rebates to their customers in different ways. A manufacturer of a product or a service provider offers money incentives to their affiliate companies or individuals which sell their products or services which in turn pass that money on to the customers as cash rebates. This is the case of most automotive dealers, large shopping chain stores, etc.
In the case of shopping networks or online retailers, they simply receive goods and services from major distributors at huge discount prices. They transfer a portion or even the entire discount amount to their shoppers as cash rebates or cash-back rebates. In other cases, the online shopping networks cut on their own profit by transferring a certain amount from the money they earned back to their customers as cash rebates in an effort to boost their sales and the marketability.
Are these ethical cash rebates? In my opinion they are! It may seem unfair to their competition, which may accuse them of dumping (selling under the profit margin in order to eliminate the competition and gain monopoly in that niche), but not to the consumers unless they feel bad for the competition, which is highly unlikely!
Some online shopping networks allow their shoppers to tap into the network profit by giving them the opportunity to become part of the network’s affiliate program. Joining such an affiliate program may be worth it if you are an avid online shopper or you plan to promote the network or its products as a business opportunity since joining these programs will require a monetary investment and or monthly membership fees! If joining a cash rebates affiliate program requires less that $300 per year I would consider the offer since just by doing your own basic household purchases online, the cash rebates earned throughout the year will more than likely offset the cost of joining the program.
Other things to consider before joining a cash rebates based affiliate program besides the cost of joining:
- How many online retailers are in the network? (it should be in the hundreds)
- Are there any major online retailers? (the presence of reputable large online retailers is a good indicator of the network commitment to its customers)
- Are they diversified? (avoid joining a shopping network that only sells one type of product or service unless you plan to do more than just shopping there)
- Is there a FREE option to join and shop on the network? (do they have a free membership option?)
- Can you earn by referring people to shop there?
- How much will you earn? (do they have a chart containing the rebates?
- Do you have to learn marketing? (you should be able to earn cash rebates just by simply referring people to shop on the network or on your own turnkey website. If they have a marketing plan that will give you some ideas about how to promote them, it would be a plus!)
