Remember my 2009 post about Bank of America becoming a loyalty affiliate?
Another classic example of a major brand acting as a cashback affiliate, which has just caught my eye, is ShopDiscover:
And just like it was with the Bank of America — where you had “to be a user of … Online Banking to enroll” — in the case with Discover you need to (a) log into your Discover card online account to see individual retailer pages, and (b) use your card to qualify for the cashback.
For example, when you click on any of the merchants on their list of “over 200 online retailers“:
…you’re prompted to log into your Discover account, and only then you’ll see the page about the merchant (let’s take 1-800-Baskets as an example):
Then after you click that “Start Shopping” button, you land on the retailer’s website (and note that affiliate identifier in the URL):
It is also obvious and not surprising that Discover functions as a super affiliate (for all the online retailers they promote), or a high volume affiliate who works with merchants on private commission basis. As is apparent from this affiliate program’s description, both 1-800-Flowers and 1-800-Baskets pay 6% on their default level. Add Discover card fees, which they can also play with, and still there will be no way for the total amount to exceed 10% or thereabout. Yet, they are offering 20% in cashback on both 1-800-Flowers and 1-800-Baskets.