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Most of us shop regularly at retail stores and sites, whether it’s for pet supplies, home decor, clothing, or gifts. While these purchases can add up quickly, they rarely fall into the bonus category on rewards credit cards, making it difficult to earn extra points and miles on them. That’s where online shopping portals come in.

Online shopping portals offer an easy way to earn bonus points or miles on purchases you’re already making. Some even offer discounts in the form of cash back. For example, Rakuten offers a one-time $30 bonus for new members who join This link (and spend $30 in 90 days).

In this guide, we’ll explore some of the top online shopping portals and how you can maximize your rewards while shopping.

Related: How to earn points, miles and cash-back rewards on pet spending

Basics of Online Shopping Portal

Let’s start with a quick overview of what this portal does. At the most basic level, shopping portals allow you to earn bonus points, miles or cash back at hundreds of online retailers.

All you need to do is log in to the online shopping portal of your choice. Then, click on the store where you want to shop, and you’ll be redirected to the store’s website and can shop as usual.

You’re still buying the same items directly from the merchant, but since you started on the shopping portal, you’ll earn bonus points or miles. However, this usually only applies to the subtotal of your purchase (excluding taxes and shipping fees).

Plus, you can still earn points or miles The rewards credit card you use makes this an easy way to double dip.

Related: Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards

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Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re planning to buy grandma a gift from Macy’s.

If you buy it directly from macys.com, the item costs $100, plus $20 in tax and shipping. You want to maximize your purchases, so you plan your usage Citi Double Cash® Card (See Rates and Fees) to avail the 2% cash back it offers on purchases (1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bill).

However, you may also notice that Rakuten offers an additional 5% back on Macy’s (up from the usual 3%). You start there and click on macys.com to complete the purchase.

Thus, you will earn the following:

• $120 x 2% cashback = $2.40 on Citi Double Cash
• $100 x 5% cash back through portal = $5

If you had shopped directly at macys.com, you would have missed out on the extra $5 earned through Rakuten. You’ve more than doubled your rewards — and you’re still getting the same item for the same price.

Citi is a TPG advertising partner.

How is this possible?

You may wonder how this portal can do this. After all, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But there is no catch here. In exchange for directing you to a specified merchant, the portal will take a cut of any purchase you make from the retailer. It’s a win-win-win situation for all involved: the merchant gets more business, the portal generates more revenue, and you earn additional rewards.

You might think that an extra $5 here or 300 points there won’t make much difference. However, if you use the shopping portal consistently, you can easily earn a significant amount of points, miles or cashback in a year. The beauty of this process is that you’re earning additional rewards for items purchased anyway – a particularly smart move to address some of the spending increases we’ve been seeing.

Types of Online Shopping Portals

Now that you know how they work, let’s take a look at the main types of shopping portals out there. You can generally group them into three categories:

• Airline and hotel loyalty programs
• credit card
• Money returned

However, A A change to a popular portal in 2019 has created another series that effectively combines the three.

Let’s dive into each and get a sense of the possibilities.

Airline and hotel loyalty programs

Almost every major airline has an online shopping portal (as does the hotel select program), and it works in a similar way. While the exact login process may vary slightly, each will be awarded bonus points or miles based on your purchases at hundreds of retailers. Here is a handy list of links for the most popular airlines:

In addition to the standard earning rates these sites offer, they often run promotions as an added incentive. In many cases, this is not based on purchases at a single store but covers transactions at all participating merchants over a fixed period of time. For example, bonuses may start around winter break or back-to-school time. Be sure to bookmark our permanent page for these offers.

Finally, some portals will allow you to link your credit card and earn extra points and miles for in-store purchases — such as This set of retailers Through United’s site.

Related: A Beginner’s Guide to Airline Shopping Portals

credit card

Some card issuers offer their own online shopping portals where you can stack your credit card earnings. They are:

To use any of these portals, you must have an active credit card account that earns rewards in the bank’s program.

In 2024, Citi entered the shopping portal space of credit card issuers. Launched as a web browser extension, CityShop automatically scans over 5,000 online merchants for coupons and other offers. These offers include coupons and statement credit. You will only be able to use the shopping portal if you have a valid US City Card. Users can find a list of participating cards when they go to enroll in the Citi Shop program. You can download the Citi Shop extension in your browser’s app store.

If you have a Chase card that earns Ultimate Rewards points, keep in mind that Chase allows 1:1 transfers to more than a dozen travel partners. You can effectively earn World of Hyatt points, United miles or British Airways Avios, for example, by logging into your Chase account and launching Shop Through Chase.

Although American Express doesn’t have its own shopping portal, there is a way to earn bonus Amex points when shopping online (more on that in a bit).

Money returned

The final category of online shopping portals includes those that offer extra cash back on your purchases. This is a great option for anyone who doesn’t want to bother with the hassle of airline miles or credit card points. In some cases, you can even get bonuses for booking hotel reservations through these sites.

That being said, going for cash back also adds complexity, as there are more than a dozen competing sites. Some of my favorites are:

Most rates fall in the 1%-5% range, although you may find limited-time specials at select merchants.

Hybrid option

One of the best sites — and one that TPG staff use the most — is Rakuten. The portal started in the area of ​​earning cash-back, but in 2019, it added the option to earn American Express Membership Rewards points. You can earn Amex points at a ratio of $0.01 to 1 Membership Rewards point, so a merchant offering 1% cash back will give 1 Membership Rewards point per dollar spent.

Based on TPG’s July 2024 valuation, which gives Amex points at 2 cents each, choosing points over cash back effectively doubles your return with Rakuten. As the site works with more than 3,500 stores, it is one of the most extensive online shopping portals. It has a browser extension that will notify you when a merchant offers a bonus, and it also has in-store offers.

If you are not a member, you can earn a $30 bonus when you sign up Sign up for Rakuten And make at least $30 worth of qualifying purchases through the portal in your first 90 days (limited time offer subject to change).

Related: Supercharge Your Rakuten Earnings with Amex Points

How do I find the best offer?

As you can see, this is a pretty impressive array of options — and if you’re overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Luckily, there’s a quick, easy way to sort them out for your next online shopping spree.

Suppose you are ready to shop from a certain retailer, but you don’t know which shopping portal to use. You have accounts with virtually every program discussed above, but does that mean you need to manually load each portal to see which bonus you’ll earn?

Thanks to magic like shopping portal aggregators Cashback Monitor, you are not. If you have never used it, you should bookmark it for future reference.

In essence, a shopping portal aggregator allows you to pull a specific retailer and see the earning rate you get across all applicable shopping portals. This allows you to quickly compare earning rates and determine which portal offers the best returns for your chosen trader.

If you sign in with your social media or Google account, you can access advanced features like choosing your favorite portal and setting a value for each loyalty currency. The default on the site is 1 cent per point or mile, but if you add in numbers from TPG’s most recent valuation (for example), the site will automatically update the return you get on your purchase — as you see in the screenshot above.

RELATED: Why Transferable Points Are More Valuable Than Other Rewards

Important tips and reminders

Accessing online shopping portals is relatively easy, but there are a few essential things to keep in mind:

• You should click through the link on the portal’s site and then make the purchase from the page that pops up. Don’t navigate away and come back later; You may lose rewards.
• You must ensure that you have cookies enabled in your browser for the retailer’s site. This allows the portal to “track” your purchases and award bonuses accordingly.
• Use only promotions or promo codes found on the Portal; If you use others, purchases may be ineligible for bonus points or miles.
• Read the restrictions for each merchant. Many people wouldn’t consider a gift card a valid bonus purchase; Excludes other certain products. Earning rates at a specific merchant can vary by category — for example, appliances at Home Depot can earn just 0.5 points per dollar spent, while home decor and kitchenware can earn 2 points per dollar.
• Use a credit card with Best earning rate on your purchase. Most of these merchants don’t fall into the traditional bonus category, so you’ll probably want to stick with cards that are good for everyday purchases.

That said, you should be able to stack most Amex offers, Chase offers, Citi merchant offers and bonuses from American’s SimplyMiles site with rewards through the online shopping portal. Most of these offers are based only on the total amount of your purchase and do not require a coupon code, so this should not be a problem.

Rewards aside, shopping portals are a great way to keep loyalty accounts active because even one dollar spent through the shopping portal can be enough to keep your points and miles from expiring. It can be a lifesaver if you haven’t banked travel into your account for a while and there’s no viable option to transfer points from elsewhere.

Related: Your Guide to Airline and Hotel Dining Rewards Programs

Bottom line

Online shopping portals are a fantastic way to earn bonus points, miles or cashback for online purchases from various merchants. Even if you only earn an extra mile or 2 for every dollar spent, these earnings can add up quickly and go a long way toward redemption. First-class flights and luxury hotel rooms, or even spending money for your next trip.

If you are not already using this portal now is the best time to start. We generally recommend Rakuten Amex points are one of the best options thanks to the flexibility and number of merchants on the site, but explore all of the options above to decide which one will work best for you.