TopCashback

TopCashback was incorporated in January 2005 by founders Oliver Ragg & Michael Tomkins and is headquartered in Stafford, England.[1][2] During the first six-years of operation membership grew to 1.2million users and the company became listed on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, which ranks the UK's fastest-growing privately held companies by sales growth (% per annum) for three years: TopCashback was ranked fifth in the 2011 rankings with a sales growth rate of 189.27%, 35th in 2012 with a sales growth rate of 89.81%, and 98th in 2013 with a sales growth of 50.35%.[3][4]

TopCashback receives referral commissions for directing its customers to retailers and in return offers various incentives to its users, mostly using percentage discounts that are given up to 12 weeks after purchasing items online or by offering small payments for signing up to insurance or subscription services,[5][6][7] which has raised criticism for whether it is impartial and working in the consumers interest.[8] Another criticism of this model is that it isn't regulated, meaning that customers have no compensation rights in the case that they were to go bankrupt. [9]

In 2012 the company entered the US & Indian markets with dedicated sites and the US site grew to four-times the UK site within its first year of operation generating sales of $16million with cashback paid out of $1million for its users.[10][11] The following year, TopCashback introduced a premium membership option where members pay a fee for additional perks [12]

In 2015 TopCashback launched the ability to link a banking card and receive incentives for in store use, and in the first year the service was found to yield £1.2million worth of sales to retailler Argos with 68% of TopCashback users new to using Argos through the service.[13] The same year saw the company grow to a membership base of 4.5million and the website undertaking a rebrand which introduced their hummingbird logo intending to "create a global brand identity".[14] By 2017 TopCashback saw continued growth with TopCashBack reaching 6.5million users and ranking at 141 in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200, and reaching international sales of £24.8million.[15][16]

In 2018 Top Online Partners and Maple Syrup Group, the owner of rival cashback website Quidco, agreed a merger to form a single group named 'CB Group Ltd.' prompting the UK Competition and Markets Authority to launch a probe into the merger which began in 2018 [17] and in 2019 the CMA announced concerns with regards to the size and lack of competition that the new company would have, resulting in Quidco and TopCashback abandoning the merger.[18][19][20]

Q4 of 2018 saw TopCashback increase revenue by 57% with a global database of over 11 million members and 5,350 retailers, and the company reporting an annual turnover increase of 18% to £129m with a pre-tax profit of £9.28m.[21][22] The company has been recognised by winning the Moneyfacts cashback site of the year award four times and being highly commended on five previous occasions.[23][24][25][26][27]

• Official website