One such company that offers cashback to its members for online shopping is CashKaro. It is one of India’s largest cashback and coupon sites. In this article, we will understand what CashKaro is, how it works, cashback categories and merchants, how to redeem cashback by transferring it to the bank account, etc.
What is CashKaro?
CashKaro is a cashback and coupon website. When a member visits their favourite shopping website through the CashKaro website, they get rewarded with cashback. For example, suppose you want to buy furniture from Amazon, garments from Myntra, or medicines from Netmeds. All you have to do is log in to CashKaro.com, search for the merchant, visit Amazon/Myntra/Netmeds through CashKaro, and complete your purchase on the merchant’s website.
Instead of visiting the merchant website directly, when you visit the merchant website through CashKaro, you get rewarded with cashback. The cashback is a certain percentage of the order value placed on the merchant’s website or a flat amount. The cashback rate can range from a low of 0.25% to as high as 100%. Yes, with 100% cashback, you can get certain products for free. Specified products/categories on specified merchants may be excluded from cashback. Hence, read the cashback terms and conditions carefully before proceeding ahead with the transaction.
Is there a CashKaro membership fee?
The CashKaro membership program is a lifetime free program. So, there are no joining fees, renewal fees, redemption fees, or any other fees to be paid by a member.
How does the cashback process work?
A member has to log in to the CashKaro website and search for their merchant. Check the cashback rates and the related offer terms and conditions. From the CashKaro website, visit the merchant website and shop like you usually do. Thus, CashKaro is just a pass-through website, and the final transaction and payment are always done on the merchant’s website. Once the transaction is completed, it will be tracked and shown in your account in pending status.
Once the merchant confirms the transaction, CashKaro will confirm the cashback. You can request the cashback payment for all transactions where the status is confirmed. The payment request can be made through one of the following options:
- Bank transfer
- UPI
- Amazon Gift Card
- Flipkart Gift Card
Suppose you select the UPI option. You will be asked to enter your UPI ID. In the next step, you will receive an OTP. Once you enter the OTP, the payment will be transferred to your bank account. CashKaro gives you real cashback that can be transferred to the bank account. Many loyalty programs give you points, coins or other currency that have restricted usage and can be redeemed for various products/services. CashKaro is different because the cashback amount can be transferred to the bank account.
The change in transaction status from ‘pending’ to ‘confirmed’ may take 15 to 120 days. It differs from merchant to merchant. If a product is returned to the merchant, the ‘pending’ status will change to ‘cancelled’ and you will not get any cashback for any such transaction.
How does CashKaro earn money?
Now that you have understood the CashKaro cashback process, you must be wondering how CashKaro itself makes money to pay cashback to its members. CashKaro works like an affiliate marketing company. They direct traffic to various online merchant websites. When the CashKaro members shop at a partner merchant’s website, the merchant gets business. In return, the merchant pays CashKaro an affiliate commission. CashKaro keeps a small part of the commission and passes a major part of it to the member as cashback. So, that is how CashKaro earns, from which it pays you cashback.
CashKaro statistics
In the earlier section, we saw how CashKaro keeps only a small part of its earnings from partner merchants. Is it enough to sustain CashKaro? Well, CashKaro plays the big volumes game. Every day, lakhs of their members transact at various partner merchants that pay CashKaro for the sales generated. Here are some CashKaro statistics:
- It has more than 2 crore members
- It has more than 1,500 partner merchants
- Till date, it has paid more than Rs. 1,000 crores as cashback to its members
- Its investors include Late Ratan Tata, Kalaari Capital, Korea Investment Partners, and Affle
Partner merchants
CashKaro has onboarded more than 1,500 e-commerce merchants in various categories. Some of these include the following.
|
Merchant category |
Merchants |
|---|---|
|
Marketplaces |
Amazon, Flipkart |
|
Fashion |
Myntra, Ajio, Snitch, Adidas, Libas, W, Puma, Firstcry, Biba, Aurelia |
|
Pharmacy |
Truemeds, Netmeds, Medibuddy, Healthkart |
|
Beauty |
Dot & Key, Mamaearth, Kama Ayurveda, VLCC, Forest Essentials, Sugar |
|
Electronics |
Croma, Oneplus, Oppo, Acer, Boat, Noise, Dell, Asus |
|
Wellness |
Clove, Zandu, Hyugalife, Fitspere, Muscleblaze, Kapiva, Dabur |
|
Food |
True Elements, Veeba, Organic India |
|
Travel |
Booking.com, Expedia, Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip, Akasa, Air India, Tripify |
The above are only some of the categories and some of the merchants in those categories. For the complete list, check the CashKaro website. From time to time, new merchants may get added and existing merchants may leave. The cashback rate differs from merchant to merchant. For the same merchant, the cashback rate usually differs for various shopping categories. The cashback rate for the same category may change (increase or decrease) from time to time.
How to manage your CashKaro account?
Whenever you do a transaction through CashKaro, it will get tracked. You will receive an email with the cashback amount, the tentative confirmation timeline, and other details. You can check your transaction details in your dashboard. The transaction status will be pending, confirmed, cancelled, paid, etc.
Initially, the transaction status will be pending. If the merchant confirms, the status will change to confirmed. If the order is cancelled or there is any other issue, the transaction status will change to cancel.
You can request a payment from the payment section. Once you request the payment for a confirmed transaction and the payment is made, the status will change to paid. The minimum withdrawal/payment request amount is Rs. 1 only. The payment history section has the details of all the payments that you have requested in the past.
Clubbing CashKaro benefits with credit card benefits
You can club your CashKaro cashback benefits with other benefits and increase your overall benefits. Here is how you can club multiple benefits in a single transaction:
- Discount on MRP offered by the merchant
- CashKaro cashback by visiting the merchant through CashKaro
- Instant discount on the credit card
- Base reward points and milestone/accelerated reward points on the credit card
- Any cashback or other benefit offered by the merchant
Depending on the offers going on at the time of the transaction, it may be possible to club all or some of the above benefits in a single transaction. For example, suppose you want to buy apparel or beauty products from Amazon.
In this case, Amazon gives a discount on most products on MRP. Also, sometimes Amazon gives cashback in the form of Amazon Pay balance, depending on the transaction amount. When you visit Amazon through CashKaro, you will get cashback from CashKaro. Finally, if there is a credit card offer going on, you will get an instant discount when you pay through the credit card. You will also earn reward points and any other benefits that the credit card offers.
Should you become a CashKaro member?
CashKaro is a lifetime free program. It offers cashback over and above other shopping benefits like a discount on MRP, instant discount with credit cards, etc. The cashback can be transferred to the bank account, unlike other loyalty programs that offer points that have restricted usage. Thus, CashKaro increases your overall online shopping benefits. So, if you want to earn additional cashback over and above other online shopping benefits, you must become a CashKaro member.
Gopal Gidwani is a freelance personal finance content writer with 15+ years of experience. He can be reached at LinkedIn.
