Verizon Media, Rakuten introduce cash back rewards for Yahoo users

Verizon Media and Rakuten kicked off the holiday season with the introduction of cash back rewards for Yahoo users across Yahoo Shopping and Yahoo Mail.

Visitors to Yahoo Shopping are able to start earning cash back rewards powered by Rakuten on purchases from more than 50 premier online retailers, with exclusive cash back rates on select merchants throughout the year.

Yahoo Shopping is a new commerce experience that features everything consumers have come to love, including price comparisons and alerts, a comprehensive promotions calendar, and trending deals. The hub is the horizontal engine that powers commerce across Verizon Media’s brands and also showcases curated editorial and content from Yahoo, HuffPost, TechCrunch and more.

Additionally, Yahoo Mail users now see promotions in their inboxes that deliver them into a Rakuten-powered shopping experience. They can earn the day’s top cash back rate on transactions with featured merchants. The cash back experience is also embedded in Yahoo Mail’s new app which launched this fall and features a dedicated “Deals” view – one place that filters all coupons users receive and notifies them of the most valuable offers before they expire. The Deals view now features a bar that shows users their cash back balance and which of their favorite merchants are available for the program.

“At Verizon Media we’re closing the loop between content and commerce, and providing engaging journeys for our users to help them discover the things they love,” said Guru Gowrappan, CEO of Verizon Media. “Since launching our commerce experiences on Yahoo, Yahoo Shopping and Yahoo Mail, we’ve made it a priority to create a dedicated rewards program. By combining the power of our intuitive email and shopping capabilities with Rakuten’s world-class rewards platform, we’ll be able to continue delivering deeper value for our consumers and brand partners.”

“Joining forces with Yahoo expands our reach to deliver cash back rewards to new audiences,” said Amit Patel, CEO of Rakuten Americas and Rakuten Rewards. “Verizon Media houses a myriad of innovative and industry-leading brands which people have come to trust. Together, we’re opening more doors for consumers who seek engaging and rewarding e-commerce experiences.”

The partnership builds on Verizon Media’s strategy to create a seamless, unified commerce experience across its brands. This fall, the company announced a suite of new capabilities like shoppable video content and editorial across its brands, interactive and hotspot images, the new Yahoo Shopping hub, and is continuing its successful immersive AR/XR ad experiences.

Rakuten is a simple way to earn cash back on virtually everything you buy and is the largest loyalty program of its kind. In the last 20 years, the company has paid more than $1.5 billion in cash back rewards on purchases from more than 3,500 retailers and online services.