Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi guys,

I`m constantly searching for ways to enhance my Ebay business -  I came across this website called BigCrumbs.com.  It caught my attention because it`s a referral/shopping rebate site -  so you get cash back when you shop, and you can use it as a referral program.   In Ebay`s case, they give the seller a referral credit and the buyer a rebate - that`s a win win in my book.

They have over 200 other major retailers signed up -  Wal Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc.

I`d like to solicit some comments about the service and how we can best use it in our Ebay business.

Go here to check it out: 

http://www.bigcrumbs.com/crumbs/frontpage.jsp?r=inflatablema dness

Looking forward to your comments!

 

-Kevin

 

 

 

 

 

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Sleep is for the uninspired

http://www.inflatablemadnessdvd.com
http://www.buybackmadness.com

huh...  I don`t like that there is no way for a retailer to join the site and have his products listed. That being the case how did they get all those big retailers? I doubt that WalMart, Sears, The Sharper Image, etc. went out of their way to get listed there... They don`t explain that connection at all and they do not say that the retailers only pay them if you shop in which case it would make sense. I could be wront but, as is, I am inclined to believe there is something funny about them. 

Interesting.  All payments received must go through Paypal.  There are costs for us to receive those payments.  Wonder how much that would eat up what they`re paying in incentives.  I`m always skeptical of incentive-based sites.  Nonetheless, I checked out all information available without joining.  I`m still skeptical.

Hello All,

I`m Vince,  founder of BigCrumbs. From time to time I like to randomly Google about to check the buzz on our company.

I was doing just that when I ran across this brief thread and thought I`d add a couple of pennies.

We do get a lot of skepticism and it`s understandable. Many think we`re too good to be true. While that`s about as good a compliment as a company can get, it also poses a challenge for obvious reasons.

I won`t go into too much detail here, but I will try to quickly address the comments made above.

There is currently no way for a retailer to join and list products because we are focusing primarily on the nationally branded retailers (which extends our offering to a wider audience), and we do need to be concerned about quality. Also, as you might imagine, each retailer we add carries potential overhead, so we must be mindful of this and manage our growth. That said, we do have plans to bring growing retailers aboard in the future, once certain objectives have been met.

The retailers we have on board are all via affiliate relationships. Some have approached us and we have approached others. We are paid a marketing commission by these retailers when members make purchases through BigCrumbs. This is the source of revenue from which we pay referral commissions and cash back to members. It`s truly a win for all involved.

We recently moved to PayPal payments after sending paper checks by postal mail. PayPal is much more efficient and cost-effective, and allows us to now pay members monthly instead of quarterly.

Also, we don`t pay via the "standard" PayPal service that charges our members PayPal`s standard fee to receive funds. Instead, *we* are charged for the payments we send. We do pass this through as a payment processing fee (we make no money on this), however, before sending members their payments.

The fee is 2% of your payment up to a maximum of $1 per payment. So, a $40 payment will have 80 cents deducted. A $500 payment (or more) would have $1 deducted. Again, you will NOT be charged again by PayPal. In short, it`s extraordinarily reasonable.

It`s really hard to lose here. Our members save cash and have a genuine opportunity to increase their income by referring others. It`s all free and very simple.

Hope this helps. Please feel free to post additional questions here or through the contact form on our site. We appreciate opportunities to clarify our program and always respond to inquiries in a timely fashion!

Thanks for your time,

Vince
BigCrumbs

I checked out the site and understand how it works and will try to explain.

As BigCrumbs said, the site is an affiliate marketing service that pays back some of the fees it earns to the people that use its service. Anyone can sign up to be an affiliate with these big retailers. BigCrumbs is just returning some of the money to consumers in the process. Affiliate marketing basically works like this: Cooking.com, for example, offers affiliates 7% on referred purchases. So when someone uses BigCrumbs to buy from Cooking.com, 7% of the money that they spend goes to BigCrumbs, what bigCrumbs does is give you 6.3% and they make 0.7%.

Does that make sense?

All told, the service is legit for consumers to use as long as BigCrumbs sends out payments. If you buy stuff online this is just a way to get a few percent off everytime.

toddo,

Thanks for the clarification. What you`ve said is pretty much spot on, with a couple of important exceptions:

The first is that in the example you provided,  the 0.7% is actually reserved as the referral commission for the member who referred the purchasing member.

In other words, we allocate the entire base commission that we receive from our retailers to our members in the form of referral commissions and cash back. This is why our rates are so generous.

The second exception is with regard to the assertion that "anyone can sign up to be an affiliate with these big retailers". All retailers have guidelines and restrictions. Some are more "accepting" than others, but many factors can cause a retailer to decline working with a potential affiliate--including site quality, concept, execution, and more.

Finally, you`re 100% right that our legitimacy is dependent upon whether we maintain our word (which includes paying our members). We are very aware that our survival depends on this (plus, we`re pretty ok--ethically speaking). In short, we offer excellent customer service and we pay on time.

In fact, we just moved from quarterly to monthly payments in order to pay members even faster.

Thanks again for the clarification. We find that many people think we`re too good to be true. Once they understand where the "free money" comes from, they realize that we are very real and offer an awesome service that is based on a sound business model.

Vince
BigCrumbs

I think it is a site similar to a few others i have seen out there and from what I can see they seem to appeal to a select type of person and not the broad majority. Awesome concept and I hope to see it succeed.

Brock Keen
www.youngwealthmarketing.com


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Young Wealth Marketing www.youngwealthmarketing.com 888-835-0340

I`d like to add my two-cents.  I`m an eBay seller and buyer and I have found Big Crumbs to be wonderful!   As a buyer, of course, I`m enjoying my rebates, but as a seller it`s very interesting.  I refer my customers to BigCrumbs to sign up before purchasing from me.  I not only make my sale, but I get a commission on that sale and they get a rebate too.  It`s certainly a win-win situation all around. 

Also, if you sign up using my referral, I would be happy to send you the wording from my BigCrumb marketing emails I send to my past customers and my past sellers for you to use. They have been pretty successful.   Just send me a message and I`ll get that over to you.

Good luck!

Lisa
http://www.bigcrumbs.com/crumbs/frontpage.jsp?r=herbgoddess

Hey Lisa,  BigCrumbs is an interesting concept to me as well - we`ve added referral links to our promotions with our customers and I`m hoping to contact the CEO with a few ideas I have.

 

-Kevin

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Sleep is for the uninspired

http://www.inflatablemadnessdvd.com
http://www.buybackmadness.com

i think bigcrumbs is great.  i`ve been getting a lot of new referrals and offer customers a freebie for signing up under me- free shipipping, lowend game used card, etc.  has worked wonders and love watching it grow.

http://www.bigcrumbs.com/crumbs/frontpage.jsp?r=rainmanesq

 

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Get FREE Cash Back from eBay and 130+ online retailers! http://www.bigcrumbs.com/crumbs/frontpage.jsp?r=rainmanesq