Doing good isn’t just rewarding, it’s key to future business success

Creating a cycle of virtue

Ibotta’s journey began in 2012 with a lightbulb moment 30,000 feet in the sky. Our founder and CEO, Bryan Leach, noticed a fellow flight passenger submitting receipts for an expense report and thought: what if there was a way for people to snap a photo of their receipt and instantly get cash back on their purchases? One idea led to another, and soon Ibotta was born. From day one, our goal was to provide people with an easier way to earn not just rewards, but actual cash back that could be put towards future needs and other purchases.

When we launched, our focus was on providing item-level cash back on grocery items, but we quickly discovered that consumers were interested in rewards on whatever they were buying. We began working with other brands and retailers to maximise the money we gave to shoppers, ultimately expanding our offering across new categories – from toys and electronics, to clothing, to baby care and health products.

We also started introducing new initiatives to support people when they need it most, such as Here to Help, which committed $10 million to consumers facing pandemic-related financial strife, and our Free Thanksgiving program, which offers 100 per cent cash back on Thanksgiving meal essentials. Since launching our Thanksgiving program in 2020, we’ve provided more than 10 million free meals to Ibotta Savers. What began as an effort to relieve the stress of putting Thanksgiving dinner on the table has evolved into an annual campaign and hallmark moment for our brand, one that people have come to anticipate and appreciate. And each year, we find ways to grow the program’s reach and impact, whether it’s joining forces with the New Orleans Pelicans and the Bayou District Foundation to distribute free meals in Louisiana, or incorporating meaningful new additions such as this year’s Free Thanksgiving for Life giveaway.

Eventually, this strategy of doing well by doing good led Ibotta to scale in ways we’d never imagined, establishing an entirely new B2B pillar and groundbreaking performance marketing solution: the Ibotta Performance Network (IPN). The IPN has taken our foundational ethos to new heights, with a truly differentiated model that creates value at scale by allowing us to distribute our cash back offers across our network, to shoppers where they are most likely to engage and most likely to earn.

In true Ibotta fashion, the platform is designed to be a win-win for everyone. As the IPN grows, a higher volume and quality of digital offers are made available to shoppers – 62 per cent of whom are more likely to continue buying from a brand if they are offered some sort of reward, according to our research. These offers accelerate consumer loyalty and engagement which, in turn, drives the kind of incremental sales lift that ignites brand and retailer growth. And ultimately, higher returns for the brand means more money to reinvest in customers – continuing the virtuous cycle.