Your comprehensive guide to leveraging shopping portals for online purchases

Many of us frequently shop at retail stores and websites for various items like pet supplies, home decor, clothing, or gifts. These expenses can accumulate quickly, yet they often don't qualify for bonus categories on rewards credit cards, making it challenging to rack up extra points and miles. This is where online shopping portals become beneficial.

Online shopping portals provide a straightforward method to earn bonus points or miles on your regular purchases. Some even offer discounts in the form of cash back. For example, Rakuten gives a one-time $30 bonus to new members who sign up through this link (and spend $30 within 90 days).

In this guide, we'll delve into some of the best online shopping portals and how to optimize your rewards while shopping.

Fundamentals of online shopping portals

Let’s begin with a brief overview of what these portals offer. At their core, shopping portals enable you to earn bonus points, miles, or cash back from a wide range of online retailers.

Simply log into your preferred online shopping portal. Click on the store you wish to shop at, and you'll be taken to that store's website, where you can shop as you normally would.

You are still buying the same products directly from the retailer, but by starting your journey at the shopping portal, you’ll earn bonus points or miles. Note that this usually applies only to the subtotal of your purchase, not including taxes and shipping costs.

Additionally, you'll continue to accumulate points or miles with the rewards credit card you use, making this an easy way to maximize benefits.

For example: Imagine you're planning to buy a gift for Grandma from Macy's.

The item is priced at $100 if purchased directly from macys.com, along with $20 in taxes and shipping. To get the most out of your purchase, you decide to use your Citi Double Cash® Card (see rates and fees) to benefit from the 2% cash back it provides (1% when you make the purchase and 1% when you pay your bill).

However, you also find that Rakuten is offering an extra 5% cash back at Macy's (up from the usual 3%). You start there and click through to macys.com to finalize your purchase.

As a result, you'll earn the following:

• $120 x 2% cash back from the Citi Double Cash = $2.40
• $100 x 5% cash back via the portal = $5

Had you purchased directly from macys.com, you would have missed out on the additional $5 earned through Rakuten. You've effectively more than doubled your rewards while still paying the same price for the item.

Citi is a TPG advertising partner.

How is this possible?

You may be curious about how these portals operate. After all, if something seems too good to be true, it often is. However, there’s no hidden agenda here. In return for directing you to a particular merchant, the portal receives a commission from your purchase at the retailer. It’s a win-win-win scenario: the merchant gains more customers, the portal earns revenue, and you collect additional rewards.

You might believe that an extra $5 here or 300 points there won’t significantly impact your rewards. However, if you consistently use shopping portals, you can accumulate a substantial number of points, miles, or cash back over the course of a year. The great thing about this approach is that you're earning extra rewards on purchases you would have made anyway—making it a smart strategy to counteract recent cost increases.

Categories of online shopping portals

Now that you understand how they function, let’s explore the main types of shopping portals available. They can typically be divided into three categories:

• Loyalty programs for airlines and hotels
• Credit card rewards
• Cash back options

However, a modification to a popular portal in 2019 introduced a new category that effectively merges the three types.

Let’s explore each type to understand the opportunities available.

Loyalty programs for airlines and hotels

Nearly every major airline has an online shopping portal (as do some hotel programs), and they function in a similar manner. While the login process may differ slightly, each portal rewards you with bonus points or miles based on your purchases from hundreds of retailers. Here’s a useful list of links for the most popular airlines:

• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping: Earn bonus miles at over 1,100 retailers.
• American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping: Earn bonus miles at more than 1,200 partner retailers.
• British Airways Executive Club eStore: Accumulate bonus Avios with over 1,500 retailers.
• Delta Air Lines SkyMiles Shopping: Earn bonus miles at more than 1,000 stores.
• JetBlue Airways TrueBlue Shopping: Earn bonus points with numerous partner retailers.
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Shopping: Earn bonus points at over 1,100 online stores.
• United Airlines MileagePlus Shopping: Earn bonus miles at more than 1,100 retailers.

Alongside the regular earning rates these sites provide, many also run promotions as an additional incentive. Often, these promotions aren’t limited to a single store but apply to transactions across all participating merchants during a specified period. For instance, bonuses may be available during the winter holidays or back-to-school season. Don’t forget to bookmark our dedicated page for these offers.

Additionally, some portals let you link your credit card to earn extra points and miles for in-store shopping — similar to this group of retailers available through United's site.

Credit cards

Certain card issuers have their own online shopping portals that allow you to maximize your credit card rewards. They include:

• Capital One Shopping (cash back only, no bonus miles)
• Barclays RewardsBoost
• Shop Through Chase
• Citi Shop

To access any of these portals, you need to have an active credit card account that earns rewards within the bank's program.

In 2024, Citi entered the realm of credit card issuers' shopping portals. Launched as a browser extension, Citi Shop automatically searches for coupons and offers at over 5,000 online retailers. These offers encompass both coupons and statement credits. Access to the shopping portal is limited to eligible U.S. Citi cardholders. Users can find a list of qualifying cards during the Citi Shop enrollment process. The Citi Shop extension is available in your browser's app store for download.

If you possess a Chase card that accrues Ultimate Rewards points, remember that Chase facilitates 1:1 transfers to over a dozen travel partners. This means you can effectively earn World of Hyatt points, United miles, or British Airways Avios, for example, by logging into your Chase account and using Shop Through Chase.

While American Express lacks its own shopping portal, there is still a method to earn bonus Amex points when shopping online (more details on that shortly).

Cash Back

The last type of online shopping portals includes those that provide additional cash back on your purchases. This is an excellent choice for anyone who prefers not to deal with the intricacies of airline miles or credit card rewards. In some cases, you can even earn bonuses for booking hotel stays through these platforms.

However, opting for cash back introduces some complexity, as there are more than a dozen competing sites available. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Mr. Rebates
• Extrabux
• TopCashback

Most cash back rates typically range from 1% to 5%, although you may occasionally discover special promotions at select retailers.

Hybrid Option

One of the top sites — and the one most favored by TPG staff — is Rakuten. Initially focused on cash-back rewards, this portal expanded in 2019 to include the option to earn American Express Membership Rewards points. You can earn Amex points at a conversion rate of $0.01 per Membership Rewards point, meaning a merchant offering 1% cash back would effectively give you 1 Membership Rewards point for every dollar spent.

According to TPG's July 2024 valuations, which value Amex points at 2 cents each, choosing points instead of cash back effectively doubles your return on Rakuten. With partnerships spanning over 3,500 stores, it ranks among the largest online shopping portals. It also features a browser extension that alerts you when merchants provide bonuses, along with in-store offers.

If you’re not yet a member, you can earn a $30 bonus by signing up for Rakuten and making at least $30 in eligible purchases through the portal within your first 90 days (this is a limited-time offer and may change).

How can I find the best deal?

As you can see, the variety of options is staggering — and if you're feeling confused, you're definitely not the only one. Luckily, there's a quick and easy method to navigate through them for your next online shopping adventure.

Imagine you’re set to buy something from a particular retailer, but you’re unsure which shopping portal to select. You have accounts with nearly every program mentioned above, but does that mean you have to check each portal manually to see the bonuses you could earn?

Thanks to the convenience of shopping portal aggregators like Cashback Monitor, you don’t have to. If you haven’t tried it yet, make sure to save it for later use.

Essentially, a shopping portal aggregator enables you to search for a specific retailer and view the earning rates available across all relevant shopping portals. This lets you swiftly compare rates and find out which portal offers the highest rewards for your selected merchant.

By logging in with your social media or Google account, you can unlock advanced features such as selecting your preferred portals and assigning a value to each loyalty currency. The site defaults to valuing points or miles at 1 cent each, but by inputting figures from TPG's latest valuations, it will automatically refresh the return you'd earn on your purchases — as illustrated in the screenshot above.

Key tips and reminders

Navigating online shopping portals is generally easy, but there are several important factors to consider:

• You need to click the link provided on the portal's website and complete your purchase from the page that appears. Avoid navigating away and returning later, as you might forfeit your rewards.
• Make sure cookies are enabled in your browser for the retailer's site. This enables the portal to "track" your purchases and grant bonuses appropriately.
• Only utilize promotions or promo codes sourced from the portal; using others could render your purchase ineligible for bonus points or miles.
• Review the restrictions for each retailer. Many will not count gift cards as qualifying bonus purchases; others may exclude certain items. Earning rates at a specific merchant can differ by category — for example, purchases of appliances at Home Depot may yield only 0.5 points per dollar, while home decor and kitchenware might earn 2 points per dollar.
• Opt for a credit card that offers the best earning rate for your transaction. Most of these retailers do not align with traditional bonus categories, so it’s wise to use a good card for everyday purchases.

That being said, you should generally be able to combine most Amex Offers, Chase Offers, Citi Merchant Offers, and bonuses from American's SimplyMiles site with rewards from online shopping portals. Most of these offers are calculated based on the total purchase amount and do not necessitate any coupon codes, so you shouldn’t encounter any problems.

Beyond the rewards, shopping portals serve as a great method to keep your loyalty accounts active, as even a single dollar spent through a shopping portal can be sufficient to prevent your points and miles from expiring. This can be crucial if you haven’t accrued travel in your account recently and lack a viable way to transfer points from other sources.

In conclusion

Online shopping portals provide a fantastic opportunity to earn bonus points, miles, or cash back for purchases made at various retailers. Even if you’re only accruing an extra mile or two for each dollar spent, these rewards can accumulate quickly, greatly aiding in redemptions for first-class flights, luxury hotel stays, or even extra spending money for your next getaway.

If you haven't yet taken advantage of these portals, now is the perfect time to start. We typically recommend Rakuten as one of the top choices due to the versatility of Amex points and the vast selection of merchants available on the site, but be sure to explore all the options mentioned to find what suits you best.