Online Shopping Portals: How They Work, Payouts, & Reviews

What Is An Online Shopping Portal?

An online shopping portal is a website that offers you cash back, points, miles, or other reward incentive when you begin your shopping session at the portal.

Most online shopping portals receive a commission when you, the shopper, makes a purchase using any of the thousands of retailer links on the site. The portal then shares part of the commission with you.

Since the site already earns a commission when you make a purchase, there's typically no reason to charge for memberships which is why there's no cost to use most online shopping portals.

This is why using online shopping portals are so popular. You're basically receiving free rewards just for shopping online... something you would normally do anyway. So why not earn rewards when doing such?

How Does Online Shopping Portals Work?

Online shopping portals are pretty easy to use and they all function close to the same. Here's a quick rundown of how they work:

1. You start at the online portal of your choosing.
2. Search the portal for the retailer that you wish to make a purchase from.
3. Click on the 'Shop Now' referral link that the portal has for that retailer.
4. You'll then be dropped off on the retailers website to shop as normal.
5. Once you make a purchase, the online shopping portal will be notified.
6. Rewards will post to your online shopping portal account.

Since the portal drops you off on the retailer's website, you can log into your rewards account with that retailer and still earn rewards as normal to double dip on rewards.

You can even take it a step further by throwing a rewards credit card into the mix to triple dip on rewards.

Example

Let's say that Rakuten Rewards is offering 5% cash back for purchases made at Best Buy. Once I make a purchase with Best Buy through their portal, I can earn:

• 5% cash back on my purchase through Rakuten Rewards.
• Best Buy Rewards Points for my purchase since I can log into my MyBestBuy account.
• Rewards with the rewards credit card I used to make my purchase.

You can easily maximize the return on your online spend using online shopping portals. I highly recommend using online portals whenever you can, especially when booking travel.

How Do You Get Paid With Online Shopping Portals?

The payout methods for online shopping portals will vary depending on the portal, but you can always rely on the following methods to be available:

• Paper Check
• PayPal
• eGift Card

Depending on the portal, some also allow for other payment methods such as Zelle and Venmo. You can also earn points and miles with online shopping portals offered by airlines and hotel rewards programs.

Best Online Shopping Portals

There's a great deal of online shopping portals available, but when it comes to earning cash back in Canada, Rakuten Rewards is the best.

There are several other portals you can use to earn cash back, but they are mostly U.S. based with a handful of Canadian retailers. Those are:

• Rakuten Rewards (US)
• TopCashback
• BeFrugal
• Mr. Rebates
• RebatesMe

Portal In Different Regions

Do note that several of these online shopping portals span multiple regions. You can sign up for cash back portals in other regions, even if you're not based out of that region.

For example, I'm based in the U.S. and I am a member of TopCashback UK, Rakuten Canada, Quidco (UK), and many more portals based out of other regions.

I typically book travel through other regional portals to earn rewards based on what they're offering. With travel, there's no difference in booking a hotel through a US, UK, Canada, or even Australian shopping portals. I just go for whichever is offering the rewards I'm looking for.

So don't feel like you're restricted to using portals in your region.

Rakuten Rewards Canada

Rakuten Rewards is one of the leading online cash back shopping portals. They offer the ability to earn cash back when using their portal to shop through more than 2,500 stores.

Payout methods for Rakuten includes check, PayPal, and gift cards.

Rakuten Rewards Canada members that hold Scotiabank Scene+ Rewards credit cards can earn Scene+ points in place of cash back while Rakuten Rewards US members that hold American Express Membership Rewards credit cards can earn Membership Rewards points in place of cash back.

In my opinion, Rakuten Rewards is the top cash back portal. Regardless of whether you're based out of Canada or the U.S., I highly recommend signing up for both of them.

• Signup for Rakuten Canada
• Signup for Rakuten Rewards US

TopCashback

TopCashback is another one of the most popular online shopping portals next to Rakuten. They offer the ability to earn rewards when shopping at thousands of retailers online.

Payout methods for TopCashback includes bank transfer, PayPal, and Gift Cards. You can also sign up for a TopCashback.uk account which can be yet another way to maximize cash back between portals (yes, I have a U.S. and UK account).

• Signup for TopCashback US
• Signup for TopCashback UK

BeFrugal

BeFrugal has over 5,000 stores you can earning rewards with when shopping online. Payout methods for BeFrugal includes direct deposit, PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, paper check, and eGift Cards.

• Signup for BeFrugal

Mr. Rebates

Mr. Rebates is the simplest of all portals with it's minimalist design. They feature thousands of stores that you can earn rewards with when shopping online.

Payout methods for Mr. Rebates include paper check, PayPal, Venmo, and gift card.

• Signup for Mr. Rebates

RebatesMe

RebatesMe has over 3,000 stores that you can use to earn rewards when shopping online. Payout methods for RebatesMe include PayPal, credit card (Visa/Mastercard only), paper check, and gift card.

• Signup for RebatesMe