This e-commerce app gives you up to 30% cash back in Bitcoins when you shop
If you are buying products and services from major stores such as Walmart, Hilton, Priceline, Booking.com, Jet, Forever21, Overstock or perhaps GoDaddy, you can get up to 30 percent cash back in your Bitcoin wallet through Lolli and then use the amount to fund more purchases or cash out for other expenditure.
It is not just another great way to help with adoption of cryptocurrencies among shoppers and retailers, but it can improve customer's shopping experience and help promote brands as a strategy. To earn from your shopping via Lolli app, you do not need to be a savvy Bitcoin or crypto user. All you need to have is a Bitcoin wallet and to set up the extension, which is pretty much easy to do.
And with 70 percent of United States population (or more than 220M people) already engaging in e-commerce and on track to spend more than $500 billion online this year, the ground is rich for retailers looking for programs and strategies that can help them attract more online shoppers. A cashback program would be just one of the many of these strategies.
So far, Lolli, which launched the application a few months ago, has processed thousands of transactions and six-figures in sales. As a "cashback" site and currently a Chrome and Safari browser extension, Lolli will allow you to earn from your shopping, not just when purchasing from major online stores you know, but also from some other over 750 online and offline stores. That should get you excited if you are a regular online shopper looking to save on your purchases. It works whether you are buying in bulk or just one item.
It works by the user downloading the Lolli browser extension and then installing it. On installing the extension, a customer creates an account and sets up their Bitcoin wallet to where they will get paid/or have the cashback rewards deposited when a retailer pays the company. From there, the customer can then normally visit the stores Lolli is partnering with and continue shopping normally.
You can check from their website the list of sites they are partnering with in order to offer cash back, but they cover pretty many types of products and services for daily use. For instance, you can get 3 percent back on flights, hotels, & car when using the extension and shopping at Priceline. The site offers up to 2 percent Bitcoin cashback when booking accommodation with Booking.com and Hilton and 6 percent cash back when shopping for clothes at Everlane.
The extension will alert you to activate savings when you get to the online store and it will track your purchases automatically. Users can choose to save the Bitcoin in the wallet, but the startup is launching two major features soon to allow withdrawal of Bitcoins and users will be able to withdraw as little as $15 worth of Bitcoins, which means you do not have to wait and make as many purchases in order to withdraw your cashback earnings.
The cashback rate is set by the participating retailers and is not uniform, but can go as high as 30 percent. Sometimes some retailers will have you wait until the return period for the item has passed in order to have you paid the cashback.
Although it currently works on Chrome and Safari browsers, Lolli is hoping to support other browsers as well. They are also planning to have smartphone and tablet apps. The startup recently raised an oversubscribed seed round of $2.25M from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Version One, Forerunner Ventures, and Digital Currency Group. Although there are uncountable cashback programs out there, Lolli is one of a few who are giving cashback in cryptocurrencies.
Founder and CEO of Lolli Alex Adelman told The Block news outlet that people have not thought about the customer adding that people want to earn Bitcoin more than they want to spend it. According to him, retailers and online shop can use the strategy to market themselves and attract "young, affluent users who are tech-savvy."
Many retailers, according to him, are using the opportunity to take advantage of the excitement among the public about cryptocurrencies. If someone does not want to buy crypto using cash, for instance, can still have Bitcoin to keep for speculation or other purposes. The idea is also connecting retailers with consumers around the technology.
Bumped has also been trying a crypto reward program where a shopper will earn BTC but instead of getting it to their wallet, they get equivalent stock of the company where they shopped at. Coinbates is also paying cash back to shoppers in cryptocurrencies when they shop at a variety of online stores but what sets it apart from Lolli is that it offers cash back in 12 digital assets namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, BATES Tokens, Litecoin, Monero, Nano, Binance Coin, EOS, IOTA, Bitcoin Cash, ZCash, and XRP.
Cashbates is also partnering with big names including in hardware and software industry such as Microsoft and Lenovo as well as Gap, Lacoste, DKNY, AliExpress, Expedia, Newegg, Overstock.com, Walmart, Macy's, Calvin Klein, Bloomingdales, Bodybuilding.com and TRX in health and sports. Although they are currently in beta, they are targeting 100 merchants in Q1 2019.
The startup, which performed an ICO this year, has a native cryptocurrency for its platform.
Other similar initiatives include Coinback, which also works through a Google Chrome Extension to earn between one and ten percent rebates when they shop at various online stores such as Walmart, Macy’s, Nordstrom Rack, Kohl’s, and Staples just to name a few. The cashback rewards are then sent to the shopper's wallet address. It has also partnered with thousands of stores selling a variety of products from clothes to electronics.
