Start Here

Start Here

Trading name	Start Here
Type	Private
Industry	Financial Services
Founded	2010
Headquarters	Australia
Services	Cash back
Website	StartHere.com.au

Start Here is an online cashback website that is based in Australia. It focuses on providing clients with a percentage of cash back from a number of online retailers, when an order is placed online. The website was launched in 2010, and now has over 1,000 online retailers supporting it and offering cash back to StartHere’s users.

Company history

Adir Shiffman, who has a background in managing Financial Service Companies, founded StartHere in 2010 alongside his co-founder Steve Ford who developed the platform over a number of years prior to this with Moneybackco.com.au. The aim of the company was to provide cash back to clients who made purchases online. This effectively acts as a discount on the product as the user pays slightly less than the RRP when the cash back is taken into account.^[1]

After the launch of the website, it gained reputation by offering attractive cash back deals on Apple and JB Hi-Fi products. This demand raised the image and reputation of the website, which led to investment from the Aura Group in September 2012. However the exact figure was never disclosed.^[1]

Around the time of the investment, the company offered cash back on over 1,000 different retail sites. It also at the time had around 14,000 members and a turnover of $5.3 million.

With the investment from Aura Group the company aim to move into Asia and North America, due to the success of similar brands and websites in those areas.^[2]

Current websites

Many of the sites currently used on StartHere are large global companies, which has been one of the foundations for their success. The site offers savings on sites such as, Dell, Hotels.com, Vodaphone, Expedia and Lenovo.^[3]

Mechanics

The website is similar to other sites currently available on the web, that focus on purchasing a certain item or service for a discounted price. These include sites such as daily deals or group buying sites. Where the Start Here site differs, is they offer the discount across entire websites for a longer period of time, often a week or more. The site model works by e-commerce sites paying a contribution to Start Here, who then pass this on as a saving to the consumer.

Start Here is a free to register website. Once signed up, users can use the website to navigate between different e-commerce sites. When purchases are made through Start Here, they then receive a percentage discount on the order they have placed.^[4]

Users of Start Here are quoted to save on average between 5-10% on the majority of sites that are listed.

References