So...How'd The Online Holiday Shopping Season Fair For You?
My family had a wonderful Christmas plus I'm getting 2% cash back! I've been busy using and Twittering sales and discount codes for online shopping the last month. Yeah, I thought to post here on the blog too but it just never happened, always got distracted with comparison shopping and family, I left so many windows open that didn't get to checkout but got some great deals. I love the updates to the Market America webportal for product search but some sites still weren't patched in to the Micosoft FAST search engine. The database has 35 million SKU's and once Target & Walmart get in there I'm sure it'll be really powerful.
The most newsworthy thing about the MA site now is how much cash back shoppers can get back and how few limitations there are compared to other cashback programs. A few people used the UPromise accrual for their kids' college fund 529s but they obviously didn't know how bad those funds are doing and that UPromise is a MA Partner Stores? Other companies like Bing, ShopToEarn, PrepaidLegal's BlastOffNetwork, and let's not forget the old Quixtar/Amway have if at best a few hundred stores while MA has over 3,000, and doesn't have caps on the earnings. MA's 2% cash back program is good for customer and distributors, has no limit to the total amount of cashback like Bing which has a $2500 annual limit. There's also a weekly update as to what the shopper has accrued every Wednesday, some plans give a monthly update. I must take some detailed notes from our webinar on those differences.
I've also learned that some of the competition says that shoppers can earn more than 2% back but the reality is that there are restrictions on that too that kinda ruin the benefits.....I've heard that to get 15% back you must register as a distributor or rep for several hundred dollars to get that discount. MA doesn't require a social security number for customers and allows for anonymous shopping, from what I recall. There is a notification that customers aren't registered yet as they shop but I'm pretty sure it's not required like some sites that must immediately get your data to lock you into a customer manager/distributor.
We have a few overview videos on Youtube now for showcasing the "Get Paid To Shop" features that I've already posted here but did you know.... MA is the ONLY company to PAY FOR REFERRALS!!! Registered customers can "Invite A Friend" and continuously earn 1/2% on whatever shopping their contacts do!! MA claims to have been advertising the site yet I saw nothing on any sites which is disappointing, no one else mentioned it either in my cache of MA colleagues. I was truly hoping for a print ad that I could talk about or even a 5 or 10 second television ad that would satisfy my husband's demand for "real publicity" and boost my own efforts at promotion. Sadly, none of my contacts took advantage of our plan. Do they think I'm going to see their personal choices? That's out of my realm but as a merchant I have privacy ethics anyway to uphold too for my customers with their credit info and purchases.
Well, I'm still very excited about the whole deal with our leap into Web 2.0 and the addition of several Social Media tools that are in the works for release in 2010. Some will debut in early January while others will launch at World Conference in Miami. Join me for the big training and sure to be groundbreaking sold-out event, I can ask around for a ticket. MA has totally embraced social media, I'm so glad they got it and see that being on the cutting edge of it for directly reaching people is a big component to the future of the company. The iPhone app alone is sure to be a killer-app!! I'm so tempted to get one but am on Verizon so the Droid would be my first choice but we'll see....
Posted by Lisa Moffa at 12/28/2009 3:36 PM 
Categories: Get Paid To Shop, Comparison Shopping
Tags: iphone app marketamerica cash back web 2.0 microsoft 2010 networking online shopping social media
Categories: Get Paid To Shop, Comparison Shopping
Tags: iphone app marketamerica cash back web 2.0 microsoft 2010 networking online shopping social media
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