A data-driven, full-funnel tool for growing sales. On our free membership-based shopping platform, we connect brands to consumer with Cash Back experiences that boost traffic, sales and loyalty. 

How? We use our granular first-party data to create Cash Back offers that reach the right shoppers with irresistible deals at the perfect moment. Bottom line: Customers show up, find you, click Buy, and keep coming back.
Ka-ching!

We’re big—and beloved. Our 17 million members are high-quality shoppers with a 72% (and growing) loyalty rate. They’ve earned over $4.6 billion in Cash Back shopping at our 4,500 merchants.* 

We’re also one of the most innovative shopping platforms out there, with advanced tools for optimization, personalization and targeting you won’t find elsewhere. And we’re in all the places people shop: online, in-store and on mobile.

Important: We help you use Cash Back to fuel the entire customer journey—from attraction through retention with an eye on maximizing lifetime value.

Long story short: You advertise, optimize and amplify your Cash Back offers on our platform. Customers buy your stuff. When you make a sale, we earn a commission. Refine. Repeat. Rejoice.

Here’s the nitty-gritty:

• You run marketing campaigns across Rakuten’s channels—i.e., the desktop site, mobile app, browser extension, and in-store.   
• Shoppers who’ve opted into our free platform visit us repeatedly to check for deals and earn rewards.
• If a member activates a Cash Back offer, they’re seamlessly redirected to your site to complete the purchase.
• The link shoppers click to buy includes a tracking code that identifies Rakuten. If the purchase is completed, we’re credited with the sale. 
• You pay a commission on every sale that Rakuten is credited with. We split that commission with shoppers as Cash Back. 
• Our standard commission and Cash Back split is 50/50. In other words, for a 2% Cash Back rate, we’d need a 4% commission. 
• With a suite of customizable advertising products and capabilities, you tailor the program to meet your goals.

The highest-performing brands on Rakuten actively use personalization and targeting to find new customers and re-engage ones that have flown the coop. The program includes:

• Cash Back elasticity: Strategically adjusting Cash Back rates to create demand—allows you to 1) give shoppers the deals they’re seeking, 2) keep your goods moving out the door and 3) stick to a consistent promotional calendar.
• Rich media mix: Desktop? Mobile? Browser? Email? Yes, yes, yes and yes. Advertising offers across channels helps you meet customers where they are, amplifying your reach and their engagement.
• Promotions and retail events: With nearly 70% of today’s shoppers waiting for sales to make purchases* (oof), we support your big-sale moments and create our own high-impact events to attract people when they’re most likely to buy.
• Goal-based solutions: Create even smarter, more efficient campaigns with our industry-first tools like Programmatic Loyalty and Personalized Rewards. These solutions use automation, data and personalization to (among other things) help you avoid over-discounting by tailoring offers to shopper behavior. For example, you can reward loyal customers appropriately while motivating new or lapsed ones with the right incentives. 

Three words: Cash Back elasticity. That’s the term we use for strategically fluctuating Cash Back rates to meet your goals and manage margins. Ultimately, you’re looking to balance incentives with profitability so you keep growth sustainable.

When should you pulse or elevate Cash Back rates? Some examples:

• In tandem with onsite promos: Adjust rates to align with your onsite promos for a consistent shopping experience.
• In between onsite promos: Increase rates to stay top-of-mind and relevant.
• Elevated events: Reward shoppers with higher, exclusive rates to drive urgency and excitement.
• Optimization: Calculate the rate using internal and external factors as well as elasticity insights to reach your audience.

Brands that strategically fluctuate their Cash Back offers see 16% higher spend from shoppers and a 36% increase in conversion rates.*

Affiliate marketing is a powerful, performance-based marketing strategy where a brand (like you) collaborates with an influential publisher (like us) to advertise your products to consumers. Brands, also known as advertisers, pay a commission to publishers based on a specific conversion metric, like a click, lead or sale. Networks play an important role, too. We all work together to succeed:

• Advertiser: A brand looking to increase awareness, reach or sales.
• Publisher: Anyone with an online presence who earns revenue by monetizing their audience and content. This could be an influencer, business, media company, deal/coupon site or—like Rakuten—a publisher that also operates as a shopping platform.
• Networks: Intermediaries that facilitate the process, including by offering tracking technology and handling commission payments.
• Consumers: Those especially attractive people we’re all hoping to reach, a.k.a. the people discovering products and making purchases based on the content and offers provided by publishers

Back in the day, affiliate marketing was mainly a bottom-funnel strategy to drive sales. But brands and publishers are much more sophisticated now, and digital technology has come a long way, too. With tools across the entire customer journey, affiliate marketing has evolved into a dynamic growth engine. That’s why affiliate spend is expected to reach $37 billion by 2030.* 

Depending on your publisher (wink wink), affiliate marketing can now provide targeted tools that drive growth at every stage of the funnel. From acquiring new customers and reactivating dormant ones to increasing retention and capturing greater market share, advanced targeting and personalization engage the right audience at the right moment. The result is a high-performing program that doesn’t just drive short-term sales but fuels long-term, sustainable growth.

It’s not easy to find your audience, capture their attention and sell in today’s crowded marketplace. Privacy rules are evolving. Brand loyalty is fickle. And consumer expectations for personalized experiences are higher than ever before.

To succeed, you need flexible, innovative, data-driven approaches to break through, delight consumers and keep drawing them in. Affiliate marketing checks all the boxes. It helps you build credibility, amplify your reach, engage quality shoppers and drive conversions in a way that’s smart for your budget.

There’s no doubt that affiliate marketing plays a significant role in increased consumer spending. Example: On Cyber Monday 2024, when affiliate marketers drove 〜20% of the day’s e-commerce revenue in the U.S., (a 7% increase from 2023), products promoted through affiliate links were 6X more likely to result in purchases than products promoted other ways.*

Here are just some of the ways affiliate adds value and delivers ROI:

• It’s built on trust. 70% of consumers rely on trusted sources​ like friends, established platforms, influencers and content creators for shopping tips.** Affiliate marketing connects brands with these voices to reach shoppers in meaningful, authentic ways.
• It delivers value. Shoppers are more value-conscious than ever, with 79% making an extra effort to buy discounted or on-sale items.** When used to promote special offers and deals, affiliate marketing gives customers the satisfaction and comfort of getting more for less. 
• It’s low-risk and cost-effective. Affiliate marketing has always been a low-risk way to expand reach through third-party advocates. Today, it offers one of the highest returns on ad spend in digital marketing—on average, a 12:1 ROAS across leading platforms.***
• It’s measurable. Affiliate marketing provides a transparent, data-rich environment—with advanced analytical tools—for measuring campaign success. With unique tracking links, you can precisely attribute conversions and performance metrics, often with a high level of granularity.