Today we're going to share with you a little secret - we get cash back on nearly all of our business-related online purchases. You can too! Let's walk through the basics of Rakuten and how you can use Rakuten for your business. 

Please Note: This tutorial shares how you can use Rakuten to receive cash back on your business purchases. If you are interested in adding your business to Rakuten and offering cash back to customers, Rakuten has information here to get started. 

What is Rakuten

Rakuten is the largest free membership loyalty program in the United States. Rakuten gives consumers cash back for online purchases at many major retailers.

How Rakuten Works

People are often skeptical when they first hear about Rakuten. Free money with no gimmicks? It seems too good to be true.

Fortunately, Rakuten is completely legitimate and can help you save money on your online purchases.

Are you familiar with the term affiliate marketing? If so, Rakuten works similarly.

When you use a link to a shopping site provided by Rakuten, there is a referral tracking code attached to your shopping session. This means that when you check out, Rakuten will get a small portion of that sale from the retailer for referring you to their site. Rakuten then turns around and gives you a percentage of what they received.

That percentage goes in to your Rakuten account and is paid to you via Paypal on a quarterly basis.

It is essentially like you've used a coupon on your purchase (though there is some time between when you make the purchase and when you get the cash back).

What You Get Back

The cash back offer is different with every retailer. Most offers are around 2% cash back, though some are regularly 6% with bonus days of cash back reaching up to 15%.

Using a Rakuten referral link does not prevent you from using a promo code or other coupon, though your cash back will be on the total amount that you paid, not the amount before coupons.

Why Use Rakuten for Your Business

If you are making business related purchases via the internet and you aren't using Rakuten, you're probably leaving money on the table.

Rakuten has offers available with many of the major retailers that your business may use, including Staples, HP, Vistaprint, Dell, GoDaddy and many more.

The money that you get back on a quarterly basis can be used for your business (or personal expenses) in any way.

How to Use Rakuten for Your Business

First, sign up for Rakuten here. If you use our referral link, you'll receive a $10 bonus once you sign up and make your first purchase.

Our biggest recommendation regarding Rakuten? Make sure you get the browser extension on Google Chrome. You can download it here.

It adds a little "R" to the top of your browser to the right of the web address. It then provides you with a small pop up in the top right corner of your browsing window whenever you go to a site that has a cash back offer. 

The pop up looks like this:

When you click the link, your window will be temporarily redirected to a loading page and then immediately back to the page you were originally on. 

You can access Rakuten referral links directly from the Rakuten site but it is easy to forget to start there. With the browser extension, you'll never forget.

From there, you're all set. Go ahead and make your usual online purchases and watch your cash back grow.

Note: This post was updated November 2019 to reflect the company name change from eBates to Rakuten. 

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