How Does Fetch Rewards Make Money?

You don’t need to pay to use the Fetch Rewards app, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t raking in the cash. Rather than charging money from its app users, Fetch’s business model is to make money from its partner retailers.

Fetch isn’t a direct shopping app, but it works directly with consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, restaurants, and retail brands, which pay Fetch to feature their products on its platform. Fetch Rewards also used to make money from its Mastercard-branded card Fetch Pay, though it no longer offers this card.

With more than five million daily users, the Fetch Rewards app is one of the leading consumer-rewards apps in the U.S. This free-to-download app offers points on your purchases from its partner brands, which you can redeem for gift cards and other rewards.

How does Fetch Rewards make money?

Fetch primarily makes money from its partner companies, but it also receives funding from investors.

Payments from partner companies

With more than 17 million monthly users, the reach that Fetch Rewards provides is valuable for CPG companies, restaurants, and retail brands, which pay Fetch Rewards to feature their products on its platform. Fetch’s partners gain visibility and customers by partnering with Fetch.

Brands can also offer exclusive experiences and rewards within Fetch Clubs, which Fetch users can opt into at no cost. At the time of this writing, you can find three Fetch Clubs on the app: Huggies Rewards+, General Mills Good Rewards, and PepsiCo Tasty Rewards.

Investments

Fetch has been growing recently, partly due to funding from outside investors. In April 2022, Fetch Rewards announced that it had raised $240 million and had a valuation greater than $2.5 billion. The app’s investors include Archer Venture Capital, NielsenIQ, and other companies. To date, Fetch Rewards has raised over $500 million in funding.

Former interchange fees

In the past, Fetch Rewards made money from Fetch Pay, a Mastercard-branded debit card it offered to users. Cardholders could purchase items with this card anywhere that Mastercard was accepted. Mastercard would charge an interchange fee to merchants and share a percentage of that revenue with Fetch in exchange for promoting the card to its user base.

What brands does Fetch Rewards work with?

Fetch Rewards partners with hundreds of major brands that you can find at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and other retailers. You can review Fetch’s special offers on brands in dozens of categories, including beauty, cleaning and home improvement, groceries, and restaurants.

To earn points from your Amazon shopping, you can connect your Fetch Rewards account with your Amazon account. Once these accounts are linked, you’ll earn points on your qualifying purchases. Once you have enough points, you can redeem them for gift cards from Amazon or other brands.

On the other hand, if you’re shopping at a brick-and-mortar store, you’ll snap a picture of your receipt and upload it to Fetch.

Let’s say you’re purchasing Huggies diapers for your baby. You’ll earn various numbers of Fetch Rewards points based on how much you spend on Huggies products, such as:

• 5,000 points for spending $150
• 10,000 points for spending $350
• 15,000 for spending $550
• 20,000 for spending $750

Does Fetch Rewards sell your info?

The short answer is yes, but it’s anonymized. While Fetch is a rewards company for consumers, it’s also effectively a market research company for the brands it partners with. Fetch Rewards gathers data on its users’ shopping behavior and sells it to companies, which rely on this data to improve their products and increase their bottom line.

However, Fetch Rewards does not share your identifying information. Your data is never tied to your name, but is instead aggregated with millions of other users to detect shopper behavior trends. According to Fetch, all of the data it shares with companies is anonymized.

Fetch doesn’t ask for sensitive personal information, and it never sees your credit card information. By federal law, vendors can only print the last five digits of your credit card number on a receipt and can’t include the card’s expiration date.

As a result, Fetch won’t see this information when you upload your receipts. And, you can always choose not to upload receipts that have more information on them than you’re willing to share. When it comes to managing your money, privacy and security are always important priorities.

How does Fetch Rewards work?

Fetch Rewards is a mobile app that offers rewards on your purchases from participating retailers. It partners with hundreds of brands, including Starbucks, Pepsi, and Doritos.

If you’re wondering how to save money with Fetch, you can start by downloading the app on Android or iOS and creating an account.

Once you’ve finished the initial setup, your next step is scanning your first receipt, whether you have grocery receipts or shopped at a clothing store, gas station, liquor store, hardware store, pet store, convenience store, or anywhere else. You can also get points back on online purchases.

Fetch Rewards uses image recognition technology to scan your receipt and detect any products that are eligible for points. You’ll earn points back on eligible purchases, which can vary in amount depending on the brand.

After receiving points, you can redeem them for gift cards at participating stores, such as Amazon or Target.

In the Fetch world, 1,000 points equal $1. You typically need a minimum of 3,000 points to redeem a reward. You also have the option of redeeming your points for donations to charity.

Alternative apps similar to Fetch Rewards

Fetch Rewards is not the only consumer rewards app out there. Some competitors include Ibotta, Honey, and Capital One Shopping, though there are plenty more. Here’s a brief look at how these three competitors work.

• Ibotta: This mobile app lets you earn cash back on your purchases at participating retailers.
• Honey: Available as a mobile app and a browser extension, this platform lets you earn rewards on your purchases and find coupons at online stores.
• Capital One Shopping: This browser extension helps you find coupons and compare prices on Amazon products from different sellers. You can also earn credits on eligible purchases, which you can redeem for gift cards.

As you can see, some competitors offer both rewards and price comparison or coupon-finding tools directly on your web browser, making them useful tools for people who like to shop online.

FAQ

Bottom line

Fetch Rewards offers a free and easy way to earn rewards on your purchases from popular brands, whether you’re shopping at Amazon, a grocery store, or another retailer — with no hidden fees.

Fetch doesn’t need to charge its users because Fetch makes money from its partner brands. Brands pay Fetch an affiliate commission when shoppers purchase a qualifying product. Fetch’s partners also benefit from the anonymized data on shoppers Fetch provides.

While Fetch shares general market trends and research, it won’t sell your identifying data. In fact, Fetch doesn’t ask for sensitive information or have access to your credit card details. Instead, it collects millions of receipts and analyzes aggregate trends in consumer behavior.

With millions of monthly users, Fetch has paid out over $340 million in rewards points and has received $578 million in funding as of April 2022. For more on this fast-growing rewards app, check out our complete Fetch Rewards review.