It feels like just yesterday we were counting down to days to surprise our Savvy Shoppers with some HUGE news and in a blink, we’re celebrating one year as your go-to Cash Back site, Rakuten!

The past year has been full of so many exciting events, fond memories, major milestones, but along with all those incredible events came some very unexpected changes.

Let’s start from the beginning…

New Name, Same Game

In August of 2019, after more than a year of planning the metamorphosis was complete… Ebates was no longer, instead a newer, mightier Cash Back program took its place – Rakuten!

But our name was the only thing that changed. We continue to offer the same amazing Cash Back, stellar member service, app and browser extension, and promotions you know and love. If anything, by aligning with our international counterparts we’re able to bring you more of everything; expanded gift card options, additional in-store Cash Back opportunities, and new stores, like Disney +, Samsung, Little Burgundy and more! That’s always our goal – do more for you, our members!

Now that you know the what, when, and how, let’s take a peek behind the curtain at some of the fun the Rakuten.ca team has been having while you enjoy all the Cash Back perks…

We Celebrated Success

We’re a close team and we work HARD! So, when it comes to celebrating our wins, we make sure they are on par with the accomplishment. Re-branding was a huge undertaking so to celebrate, our awesome office manager, Chris, set up an outing in Niagara’s wine region! We sampled some of Ontario’s finest whites, reds and rosés, sampled local jams, cheese, and award-winning butter tarts, but best of all we got to enjoy each other’s company and toast to a job well done.

Merry Everything

The holidays are a special time for our team. We start planning many months in advance to ensure our members have access to the best deal and Cash Back rates on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Boxing Day, and beyond. But we always make sure to take an evening off, away from the computers and kids, to share the joy of the season. This past winter we enjoyed each other’s company, and that of our significant others, over a beautifully catered meal in a secluded corner of one of downtown Toronto’s Italian restaurants. We definitely ended the decade on a high note!

Giving Back to the Community

A time-honoured tradition at Rakuten.ca is our annual day of volunteering around the holiday season. In 2019 the entire team helped pick, wrap and package gifts with the Holiday Helpers organization whose mission is to provide a Holiday package to low-income families with young children. The volunteer opportunity gave us the chance to make an impact within our community with the added bonus of team bonding (and practicing those gift-wrapping skills!)

Our Team Expanded

Over the course of the year, we welcomed a few very cute Savvy Shoppers to the team! Reja, our Retention Marketing Manager, welcomed a little boy, Jacob, back in December. And, our Senior Account Executive, Lindsay, gave birth to twins Hunter and Greyson in early Spring.

In addition, we filled five new and existing roles to accommodate the growth of our business. Speaking of growth, we recently hit a monumental milestone – 6+ million Savvy Shoppers! That’s a lot of people to find deals for! If you’re interested in available positions, follow us on LinkedIn for notifications when they’re added.

And that brings us almost up to date…

We’ve Adapted

It will be a surprise to no one that 2020 forced us to pivot and completely change our perception around work. As a company, and society as a whole, our lives changed almost overnight.

Like many others we jumped into the new normal as best we could. We swapped Zoom backgrounds for meeting rooms, business casual for sweats, and our desks for the kitchen table!

But meetings and working calls aren’t the only things we’ve taken online. That “water cooler” banter that happened in communal office spaces has also gone virtual!

Every day, our team connects to discuss all sorts of things – from the latest Netflix release (hello, Selling Sunset!) to recent recipe attempts, to more sensitive topics like mental health, societal change, and parenting in the “new normal”.

Happy hours, exercise classes, and trivia sessions have also been added to the schedule. Maintaining social connections within the team is of the utmost importance – especially as we continue to isolate as a company.

What will the remainder of the year bring? We can’t be completely sure… But if there is one thing we DO know, it’s that you can always count on us to bring you more opportunities to earn Cash Back, expanding our service offerings and sharing the hottest online deals with our members. We’re so excited to see what another trip around the sun brings and have you along for the ride.