Shopping Smarter: ShopBack’s Mission to Make Every Purchase More Rewarding

Scout Belt didn’t expect a mattress topper to change how she thinks about money. A graduate student in Austin, Texas, working within the limits of a budget, she had been putting off the purchase for months. Then she opened the ShopBack app. “Ever since ShopBack, it’s kind of given me the opportunity to not feel guilty,” she says. “I’m actually getting those essentials that I need, like from Amazon.” 

Founded in Singapore in 2014, ShopBack has spent the past decade building scale and trust across Asia-Pacific with a deceptively simple proposition: helping consumers get more value from their everyday spending. Through cashback rewards designed to be practical, engaging, and easy to use, the platform has transformed how people shop worldwide. Today, ShopBack serves over 60 million shoppers across 13 markets and has returned more than $1 billion in cashback to users since founding. Only one year ago in May 2025, the company continued its global growth with a major expansion into North America. 

Now with offices in Austin, Texas, ShopBack’s first year in the U.S. has included being named a Fast Company Most Innovative Company, more than 3,000 retail partnerships, and tens of thousands of U.S. dollars back in user pockets. 

“We’re interested to take those innovations that we’ve learned in APAC, localizing for the US, but now play on a much bigger playing field,” says Joel Leong,ShopBack’s co-founder. “In fact, the world’s biggest playing field of consumer markets.”

Here’s how it works: When a shopper makes a $100 purchase through ShopBack with a 10% cashback offer, $10 comes back to them after the transaction is complete. ShopBack directs users to participating merchants, earns a commission when a sale is made, and passes the majority of that commission back to the user as cashback. And for shoppers already earning credit card points, there is no tradeoff. “You don’t have to stop using your credit card,” says Carolina Paradas, General Manager for North America. “You can actually stack both.” The result is a win-win dynamic: shoppers save money on purchases they were already going to make, and merchants gain  high-intent customers they might never have reached otherwise.

That merchant value is real. Francesca Kennedy, Head of PR and CSR at Shop LC, a global jewelry brand and 24/7 home shopping network, put it simply: “Partnering with ShopBack was a no-brainer. We’re giving customers exactly what they want in a moment of intent.” 

ShopBack has grown into a widely used rewards platform in the Asia-Pacific region by helping users save money on everyday purchases through cashback, deals, and other shopping rewards. Its growth has been shaped by product features that differentiate it in a competitive market, a series of milestones that supported its expansion across Asia-Pacific, and the strategic decisions behind its move into the United States.

In addition to geographic growth, ShopBack has also continued expanding its broader ecosystem with products like ShopBack Play, which lets users earn real cashback by playing mobile games, turning everyday downtime into cold, hard cash. 

The U.S. expansion marks a new milestone in a journey that has already reshaped how tens of millions of people worldwide approach shopping. With proven technology, a loyal user base, and a model that delivers real, tangible value, ShopBack is carrying serious momentum into the world’s largest consumer market.