What is RebateKey and Why Your Business Should Use It

RebateKey is an excellent marketing tool that provides companies on a website platform like Walmart or Amazon ways to offer thousands of rebates and rewards on their products and brands for a chance to attract more customers.

The buyers benefit from the reduced cost of the products they purchase, while the seller benefits from the boost to their full-price sales numbers which help increase their rankings. This guide will help you discover if RebateKey can work for your business.

What is RebateKey?

One huge difference between RebateKey and the thousands of traditional rebate services is that RebateKey does not require physical coupons or the mailing in of a Universal Product Code.

It allows shoppers to register their claim online and then simply wait for their rebate check, overall creating a much better experience with its discount offer.

RebateKey was initiated by over 30 eCommerce sellers who took the opportunity to join forces to develop a better way to promote their best and latest products with shoppers. It has since been experiencing rapid growth, largely due to word of mouth.

What is a Rebate?

For those who are not familiar with the retail rebate process, rebates are a form of discount that is provided after the purchase is made, rather than being applied upfront like a traditional discount.

So, with a product offered with a rebate promotion, the customer will initially purchase the item at full price but on the promise that they can then claim the rebate later and receive a partial refund.

Ultimately it is an incentivizing marketing ploy to drum up interest in a product and get people to purchase the product originally at full price which then improves the shop and product’s rankings better than a standard discount sale would.

How does RebateKey work for Sellers?

Rebate Key handles the entire process for both the buyers and the sellers. Both sign-up to the Rebate Key platform, with the sellers informing Rebate Key of what products are offered with deals, and Rebate Key then manages everything else.

The seller’s Rebate Key process looks like this:

Step	Description
1. Sign-up	Sign-up to Rebate Key with your email and shop details.
2. Receive URLs	They send URLs of products offering discounts.
3. Product Promotion	Rebate Key promotes the products to registered buyers.
4. Buyer’s Purchase	Buyers make a purchase and enter their order number on Rebate Key.
5. Process Rebate	Rebate Key proceeds with the rebate and sends an email confirmation.

The rebate process begins after the buyer enters their name, email, and order ID number. The rebate key money is then held for 30 days, after which the seller must approve or decline the rebate. Once approved, Rebate Key sends the money via check to the buyer.

Why Your Business Should Use RebateKey

There are a lot of fantastic features for sellers on Rebate Key which provide a better user experience and great value for money. You can create unique landing pages, communicate with buyers and integrate with Chrome Extension. Here’s a quick run through all the reasons why you should consider using Rebate Key.

User-Friendly Platform Providing a Better Experience

The RebateKey platform is user-friendly and straightforward to use. You can easily create rebate offers, and RebateKey takes care of the entire process from that point onward.

Value for Money Customers will Appreciate

By being able to offer such easy rebate offers, your consumers will appreciate the great value for money you offer on your products. While RebateKey does not generate reviews itself, the goodwill and generous discounts provided by the good deals can only help increase positive feedback.

Useful Chrome Extension for Adding Rebates and Coupons

The Chrome Extension available with RebateKey makes it even easier to add rebates so your customers can claim their discounts in the future.

Landing Pages for User Conversions

To enhance user conversions, RebateKey offers a landing page creation feature that enables you to design landing pages for your products. This increases the visibility of both the rebate offer and the product, simplifying the claim process for customers.

Multiple Online Marketplaces

RebateKey works with multiple online marketplaces, including two of the very biggest Walmart and Amazon.

Ability to Contact Buyers Via Internal Messaging

Another brilliant feature of RebateKey is the ability for sellers to contact buyers via the special internal messaging service, whether they purchase through Amazon from Orlando or Walmart from San Diego.

Pre-Approval of Each Rebate Check on Auto

While RebateKey manages the entire rebate claim and money payment process, each seller still retains authority over each purchase rebate.

Support Via Facebook Messenger

RebateKey offers support through Facebook Messenger, allowing for quick and easy communication.

Access to Deals and Discounts for Your Customers

Every seller can use RebateKey as a one-stop shop for all their special offers,  which saves time and energy and keeps everything organized. This includes discounts for small business owners looking to save on everyday items.

RebateKey Pricing for Sellers – It’s Even Cheap at Full Price

Sellers only pay $2.95 to RebateKey per sale or rebate claim by buyers. This means if a single rebate campaign results in ten claimed refunds, then the total amount the seller pays to RebateKey is just $29.50.

Extrapolate that to a much more successful campaign that results in a hundred refunds, all of which are full price-paying sales that help improve the shop’s ranking for the product, and the total is still only $295.

Using RebateKey for Amazon

The current landscape of eCommerce is highly competitive, especially among major online marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart. However, despite the intense competition, the number of potential customers is significantly greater. For instance, Amazon Prime boasts nearly 100 million subscribers. Therefore, utilizing a service like RebateKey to enhance your business’s visibility is definitely a valuable investment.

Setting up a RebateKey account for an Amazon ship is simple and you can do it from your browser. The very first step is to create a seller’s account by providing some details such as your company name, address and website, as well as your contact email address. You will also be asked to enter your average product sales volume and the sort of products you’d like to rebate.

The RebateKey dashboard then features all the options for submitting a rebate campaign. To set up the campaign, you must enter the following information:

• Name of the rebate product
• Brief description of the product and product category
• Images of products
• Unique product ID number
• Number of rebates in the campaign and campaign length
• Discount percentage offered in rebate

Is It Worth It? A Brief RebateKey Review

It is worth weighing up the pros and cons so here we will have a look at the primary benefits and compare them to less beneficial elements of working with this discount system for an Amazon store.

Perhaps the most reassuring aspect of RebateKey is that you know all your payments are covered and secured. The product rebate ID system also ensures customers cannot make the same purchase more than once.

Another pro is that all the external traffic generated by the product rebates will be diverted to your Amazon store. The Facebook Messenger contact point is also good, though more on this below when we go through some of the cons.

One more pro for this RebateKey review is the automated mail after every rebate check, so you know exactly which discount tickets have been claimed and when.

And so to the cons. While the Messenger contact point is good, the lack of assistance via telephone feels limiting. A phone number for personal contact would greatly improve customer service.

There is also the oft-unspoken negative that is the majority of rebates being more likely to be claimed due to the ease of claiming them online. With the old mail-in rebates, many of them would have been forgotten about or lost, but it is now easier for the customer now as well as for the seller.

Alternatives to RebateKey for Sellers

RebateKey is not the only service available for Amazon to take advantage of. Here we go through a few of the alternative firms that provide similar features.

Snagshout

Snagshout offers cashback and price reduction codes for products bought online with the refunds paid directly into the customer’s PayPal account. This is an even more streamlined service than RebateKey’s check-sending method but does of course limit the number of customers to those that have a PayPal account.

Vipon

Vipon offers lots of cash savings on products you order on the Amazon or Walmart site. They also have a points system and instructions for regular customers to reward them for multiple purchases via their site.

Cashbackbase

Cashbackbase lets customers find 100% cashback products that they can buy and be fully refunded for if they are not happy. The site also offers coupons from Amazon and Walmart stores to help them build sales quickly.

Who owns RebateKey?

As previously mentioned, the site was started about three years ago by over 30 successful e-commerce people who were looking for a better way to promote their products to more target users via rebate campaigns.

One of the co-founders is the wonderfully named Ian Sells, and another is Leo Limin. Together, these two characters recruited more businesses to join them in creating an easy-to-use rebate and coupon experience for both customers and online shops.

They run the platform site from their headquarters in Sheridan, Wyoming.

How does an Amazon rebate work?

To submit an Amazon rebate order claim for an item, you must follow these instructions carefully.

First, you purchase an item that has a rebate offer available on it and ensure the rebate offer deadline has not passed. The product details and information will have the deadline for purchase. It will also have a postmark deadline, which is the deadline by which you must file the rebate claim.

Secondly, once you have received the package, go to the RebateKey website and click their option for Amazon rebate campaigns (you will need to set up your account first). Complete the rebate form by entering the order number or order ID for the products you purchase before the postmark deadline. And make sure to read all the fine print to see if there are any other conditions or changes to the rebate process.

Be aware that once you click to submit the rebate claim after entering the order ID for your products, you can no longer return the products for any reason.

Finally, you simply wait for the 30 day time period to pass, the seller will then approve the rebate and RebateKey will send out your check in the mail.

Is RebateKey against Amazon TOS?

No, it does not go against the content lists of Amazon and Amazon Prime ToS because they are not review-generating services. The terms of the Amazon platform absolutely do allow price reduction on products. However, it explicitly states that you cannot reduce prices in exchange for a review. As a review is not offered, it is perfectly fine.

Of course, sellers will hope the increased sales that the rebates generate will organically lead to a review or two, but a review is not part of the service, and a review that does arise out of the rebate campaign will be a genuine review from a genuine customer.

Is RebateKey allowed?

Once again, it is entirely legitimate because it does not involve creating a review. The restrictions imposed by Amazon and Amazon Prime on such services pertain to the creation of reviews rather than the provision of discounted prices.

How do I sell on RebateKey?

To sum up, here is a step-by-step guide on how to sell on RebateKey:

• Create a RebateKey account and set up the rebate campaign, including prices.
• Publish and promote your rebate campaign to increase purchases.
• Approve all legitimate rebates generated by RebateKey.
• RebateKey now does all the work and mails the checks out.

Image: rebatekey

This article, “What is RebateKey and Why Your Business Should Use It” was first published on Small Business Trends