If you shop online — and who doesn’t these days? — now’s a smart time to stock up because you stand to earn a lot more cash back than usual.
Rakuten is celebrating its birthday by offering cash-back rates of up to 15% — and in a few cases, even more — for dozens of retailers and other merchants that Rakuten partners with.
And that’s on top of any other type of savings you rack up, such as from shopping sales or paying with a cash-back credit card.
This promotion runs through May 11.
As of May 4, the retailers where you can earn 15% cash back or more include:
- 1-800 Contacts — 15% cash back
- 1-800-Flowers.com — 15%
- Athleta — 15%
- Avon — 15%
- Babbel — 25%
- Clinique — 15%
- Coach — 15%
- Dockers — 15%
- eBags — 15%
- eharmony — 20%
- ELF Cosmetics — 15%
- Elizabeth Arden — 15%
- From You Flowers — 25%
- FTD — 30%
- Jared — 15%
- Kate Spade — 15%
- Keurig — 15%
- Lancome — 15%
- Lands’ End — 15%
- Lenovo — 15%
- LensCrafters — 15%
- Levi’s — 15%
- Norton — 45%
- Olay — 15%
- Pier 1 Imports — 15%
- ProFlowers — 30%
- Staples — 15%
- Tarte Cosmetics — 15%
- Things Remembered — 15%
- Tory Burch — 15%
For a complete list of retailers that are currently participating in this promotion, visit Rakuten’s website and scroll down. Then, click on “See All Stores” — next to where it says “Celebrate Our Birthday With up to 15% Cash Back.”
Note that many of the retailers — florists, jewelers, cosmetics companies and women’s clothing retailers, for example — are geared toward Mother’s Day purchases. So, if you have procrastinated on buying a Mother’s Day gift that you can send Mom while you and she are stuck at home, you have a lot of options — if you act fast enough to allow for shipping time.
How Rakuten works
Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates, is a cash-back portal. By doing your online shopping through its website or app, or using its browser extension, you’ll earn cash back — during this promotion and in the future — on purchases from any of thousands of retailers and other merchants that partner with Rakuten.
How is that possible? It’s simple: Rakuten receives a commission from retailers for referring online shoppers to those retailers’ websites. Then, Rakuten shares that commission with shoppers.
It’s free to sign up for a Rakuten account, and it’s free to use the portal. To see an example of how Rakuten works, check out “If You’re Not Getting Cash Back When Shopping Online, Use This Trick.”
Rakuten is among the oldest and best-known cash-back portals, but it’s not the only one. Others include Drop, Ibotta, TopCashback and Swagbucks Shop.
Even if you already have a Rakuten account, you might want to check out other cash-back portals because different portals often offer different cash-back percentages for a given retailer.
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