"From The Iconic to Myer: I tried the app that gives you money back for shopping online."

Whenever I used to hear friends boasting about using ShopBack, I’d get that same jealous, out of the loop feeling I remember from high school when everyone else already seemed in love with a cool band I’d only just stumbled upon.

It was this jealousy that led me to download the ShopBack app onto my phone and start purchasing items (mostly for my new apartment which has me in a frenzy of redecorating). 

All because friends kept telling me, through some act of wizardry, that with this app there was a way to go on a shopping spree that would result in money tumbling back into my account.

Ok, so it’s not exactly wizardry, but still pretty magical once you get into the swing of it.

ShopBack is the leading cashback platform in Asia Pacific and more than one million customers in Australia have now cottoned onto the app and started using it to do their online shopping.

There's a range of products including homewares, clothes, beauty, electronics, furniture and gift cards from more than 1400 brands available to shop through the app.

How it works is that ShopBack partners with the brands on their platform and when you use the app to make a purchase from one of those brands, they pay ShopBack a commission as a little thank you for setting the whole thing up.

"When I opened the app I saw that there was a range of products including home wares, clothes, electronics, furniture and gift cards from more than 1300 brands available." Image: Supplied.

ShopBack then shares part  of that commission to you in the form of cash that can either be transferred to you via PayPal or just be dropped directly into your bank account.

To kick things off I just downloaded ShopBack from the App Store (score yourself a $20 sign up bonus using this link), set up my account username and then found myself on the ShopBack landing page where the Explore Categories section gave me the choice to start browsing Fashion, Sports and Fitness, Health and Beauty, Home and even Travel.

Basically, you just select the category you are after and it will give you a selection of stores to choose from. 

For each store it will also show you the percentage of the money you'll receive back after making the purchase. 

So on the first day I checked, shopping Myer through the app gave you five per cent off your purchase, food service Marley Spoon was $30 cashback, booking travel through Expedia was 6.5 per cent back, and The Iconic was 16 per cent cashback.

One of the first things I realised is that all the brands I organically shopped for each month were already on the ShopBack app and here I was, like a schmuck, hitting purchase week after week and paying full price without scoring any money back.

So Dan Murphy's, where I do my weekly wine shop, gave me 4 per cent back on my normal order (which, over the course of a year, will be a pretty sweet saving) the same with Youfoodz, who I rely on to feed me during the weeks when I'm crazy with work, also offering up a similar percent back.

Outside of food and a good wine, all the online purchases I'd been eyeing off for weeks but still weighing up the cost of were actually featured on ShopBack. It gave me the little nudge I needed to buy a cobalt blue midi dress from Bohemian Traders (2.1 per cent back) and a new bag from The Iconic I'd had saved in my favourites for months, but that 16 per cent back on top of their sale was enough for me to justify the spend. 

What I noticed on the ShopBack app was that they would often run “upsized cashback” or “cashback flash sales”. This would mean that certain retailers would have up to four times the usual cashback percentage. For any savvy shoppers, you could wait for these promotional periods and stack it with a sale on the brand’s website to maximise on money saved.

Ever since I moved into my new apartment, I've been dreaming of a midnight blue sectional velvet couch and I finally found the one of my dreams at Castlery. 

Holding my breath I typed the brand name into the search function and waited hopefully for it to pop up and there it was, with a sweet 5 per cent cashback on offer. 

Which, when you're talking of a big furniture purchase upwards of $2000, is a pretty sweet deal.

“I finally found the couch of my dreams at Castlery and after the swatch sample arrived I typed the brand name into ShopBack and saw that I could get a sweet 5% money back.” Image: Supplied.  

When you click on a brand name on ShopBack, it clarifies the percentage you'll receive back and then takes you through to the online store to shop as normal, so there's not a series of extended steps to take before you hit purchase and wait for the return funds to appear in your accounts.

So my advice to you would be that the next time you jump online to make a purchase, from anywhere like Myer, to Kmart, Catch.com.au, Booking.com or even eBay download and use the ShopBack app for free. 

ShopBack will give an exclusive $20 sign up code to the Mamamia community, so anytime you shop online, head to ShopBack first to redirect to the store you're after then shop as usual. 

You'll then get cashback on your purchase - it's as simple as that.

Happy shopping.