Type of site Cashback website Alexa rank 5,503 (November 2015) Launched 2005 | Website www.topcashback.co.uk Registration Required | |
TopCashback is a cashback website based in the UK, with offices in Stafford (Staffordshire), Bolton (Greater Manchester) and Charing Cross (London), as well as international offices in New Jersey (U.S.) and Bangalore (India). The website passes on commission usually paid to third-party referrers directly to its members. It also lists voucher codes and provides product comparison tools.
Contents
The website's member base uses TopCashback as a portal of retailer websites. Commission is paid by these retailers on each purchase made on their sites and this is then passed back, in full, to the members. Cashback websites have become prevalent with the rise in popularity of ecommerce stores and shopping online, with the aid of a tracking cookie the purchase can be recorded on the merchant's website as a referral from TopCashback.
TopCashback was voted Cashback Site of the Year in 2016 and 2017 at the Moneyfacts Consumer Awards.
History
TopCashBack was launched in Summer 2005 as a completely free 101% cashback website. The website is funded by advertising revenue.
According to the TopCashback website, the company was "Founded on a bootstrap budget in 2005 by two computer programmers, Oliver Ragg and Mike Tomkins. The two friends identified the potential that the new affiliate marketing industry offered; both as a business model and as a way to help people genuinely save money."
TopCashback reached one million members by August 2011 and had six million members at the start of 2017.
In May 2011, TopCashback opened a London office to handle public relations with the media, and partnerships with other companies including the affiliate networks. TopCashback was listed at number 5 in the 2011 The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 and at number 35 in 2012.
A US site was launched in November 2011.
TopCashback launched a toolbar add-on for popular internet browsers in October 2010. The toolbar is designed to sit on the browser window and track cashback earnt, avoiding the need to navigate from the main site. The toolbar is also designed to notify the user if the merchant they are visiting offers cashback rewards, and also highlight merchants that offer cashback in search engine result pages. The toolbar offers most features of the main site, with personal account login, savings information, and related social buttons.
'Snap & Save' was launched in February 2013, allowing members to upload pictures of receipts from some supermarkets and earn cashback on items that are on offer on the website. The scheme is integrated with the site's mobile application.
Charity support
Members can donate a portion of their cashback to a named charity. The highest profile charity raising campaign was for the Cancer Research UK fund. During the course of 2 November 2012 – 28 February 2013 TopCashBack donated £1 to Cancer Research UK for every new fan joining their branded Facebook page, raising a total of £13,363. The charity was nominated by the TopCashBack community as the most favoured for their CSR project and therefore were the focus charity for 2013.