Find out how the Shopmiumm app works, what it is, and how it might save you money on your grocery shopping!
Shopmium is a supermarket cashback app that allows users to earn cashback on various grocery and household products from popular brands while they are out grocery shopping. In essence, Shopmium is a platform that partners with brands and supermarkets to offer exclusive cashback deals to users, incentivising them to try new products and provide feedback.
How do you claim cashback on groceries?
Like most supermarket cashback apps, which work similarly, the free app will show you a range of grocery products for which you can claim cashback. By clicking on the product, you will be shown the discount available and which supermarkets the discounts apply to. You then buy the eligible products you want, and then via the app, you click on the 'request my cashback' button. You’ll then be prompted to scan the product barcode of the items you have purchased, take a picture of your receipt, and upload the receipt photo to the app.
The cashback claim will then be checked, and once it's been confirmed, it'll go to your Shopmium wallet. Until June 2024, any cashback you earned would be sent to your Paypal account within a couple of days, no matter the amount you received, however since June 10th 2024, Shopmium will now not allow you to cash out your cashback until you have a minimum of £10 in your wallet. You can choose which payment method you cash out to, e.g. bank account/PayPal.
This change saves Shopmium money on their admin fees and, no doubt, keeps money in their bank account longer, which is understandable. It's okay for the frequent users of the app, as that £10 will likely add up quickly; however, for those Shopmium users who don't use the app very often, it means it could be a while before they can actually withdraw the cashback owed to their bank account, which is a shame, and may stop these users from using the app.
I recently conducted a poll on my Instagram account about the change and asked what people thought. 44% of respondents expressed that they disliked the change, but it is what it is. I'm sure people will get used to it; they'll have to if they want to keep using Shopmium. After all, it's the same way that CheckoutSmart and GreenJinn work, so nothing is out of the ordinary!
New products are added to the app weekly, sometimes more often. Discount amounts vary. Featured products offer discounts from as little as 10% cashback, but it's not unusual to find cashback amounts as high as 50%, or some exclusive products may even be free, giving you 100% cashback!
The cashback offers fall into various genres; you may find offers on pet food, beauty products, baby food, personal care products, and exclusive offers on everyday food products.
Shopmium has partnered with various supermarkets, such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose, Iceland, and Ocado, as well as other stores, such as Co-op, Home Bargains, Nisa, Boots, WHSmith, B&M, BP, Booths, and more.
The significant benefit of using these types of apps is that you no longer need to worry about paper coupons, which the UK, compared to the USA, hasn't really embraced; instead, you'll get ever-changing deals and free products, which may be everyday purchases you were going to make anyway from local stores, such as supermarket shopping, or via an online store when online shopping for groceries, all via your mobile device, which is an easy way to save money!
Also, you can pay for your shopping via a gift card from JamDoughnut, Cheddar or EverUp and earn cashback on the gift card purchase. It doesn't matter how you've paid for your shopping; you can still get your cashback from Shopmium, so it's a kind of cashback deal stack. You won't get rich from the cashback stack, but every penny helps!
Shopmium offers promo/referral codes that can be used when signing up for Shopmium or within seven days of registration. The referral codes allow Shopmium users to earn £3 for each friend they refer who requests cashback.
This means you could refer members of your family or friends, and you'll receive £3 of extra referral credits that go into your Shopmium wallet.
The person you refer to Shopmium also gets a good deal, as after making their first cashback claim, they can then claim a free gift from Shopmium as a welcome gift. The free welcome gift, currently (June 2024), is a bag of Cadbury's big buttons, which you purchase and then claim back as 100% cashback. Just enter the promo/referral code during registration or in the app after signing up.
Shopmium and GreenJinn both offer a referral program, but Checkoutsmart doesn't have this facility. If you refer somebody to Shopmium, they'll get the free chocolate, and you'll get a £3 bonus. This bonus goes into your Shopmium wallet and does count towards the £10 minimum withdrawal amount, so keep referring people for faster cashback payouts!
Shopmium users can give feedback on the products they've tried, which is a good way to give feedback to the brands who fund the discounts. However, this isn't a requirement for getting exclusive discounts, and if you do leave feedback, it doesn't have to be positive feedback—just an honest review of what you thought of the product. Negative reviews have their place on the app as well!
The more products you buy and grab cashback on the higher the chance you'll be upgraded to a silver and then gold Shopmium member. Gold members get offered faster cashback payouts and more benefits and offers, not to mention a freebie on your birthday, which is usually a box of chocolates. You have to keep up with making more frequent cashback claims, or you'll be downgraded to a lower membership tier and have to up your game to get back into gold again!
The downside to all these types of cashback apps that give cashback on grocery products is that you may actually end up spending money you didn't want/intend to spend! It's fine if you're getting a discount on something you were going to buy anyway, but if it's not something you would normally buy, and you're not getting it for free, then the deal is actually costing you money! If you buy the product and can get cashback on something you wanted to buy anyway or on something you know you'll use, then it's free money, although you will need to wait for your wallet to have the minimum of £10 to withdraw it.
The manufacturers/ brands pay these supermarket cashback apps to promote their products, often new products that the companies want to increase shoppers' awareness of, and that's why they discount the products; it's a way to get you to try a product you might not have normally tried, hopefully, leave a review for other potential new customers to see, and they hope you'll buy the product again, so it's actually cheap advertising!
Not only that, the demand from the cashback app users for that product will also increase the product's sales within the supermarket, which in turn may lead to increased orders from the supermarket for the product, which is good for the brand as it brings in more business and increases the likelihood that the brand's products will be favourably looked upon by the supermarkets buying team, so it's more involved than just giving people a discount!
On the whole, Shopmium is a great way to save money and try different products you might otherwise not have tried. My main gripe is that it's harder to see what discount a product is being given at, without having to click on the product first; rivals such as Checkoutsmart make it very easy to see the discount/cashback being offered, which I personally prefer; however, again this is likely done for a reason, which is, I suspect, that if you have to click onto a product to see the offer, then you'll be more likely to get a better view of the product and what it is, rather than skimming the offers for the best discount, so it does make sense!
If you'd like to join Shopmium, and frankly, I can't think of a reason why someone wouldn't, you can download the app from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store or via the Shopmium website. If you'd like to grab a free first-time welcome gift, then please do use our Shopmium referral code of G2AG3