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We were asked by Pennyful.in to review the buying experience on their website, and we in turn asked our consumer expert Amit Mehta to take it up (remember him from here?) Pennyful is not another Amazon or Flipkart. It’s a cashback engine that partners with a host of leading Indian e-commerce sites to get you cashback on purchases you make.

The list of partners includes e-retail majors like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra to Etihad Airlines, Redbus, FabIndia, Pepperfry, Pizza Hut and Himalaya (view the complete list here). Discounts range from varying rates across product categories to lump sum figures.

So How Does it Work?

First, you register on Pennyful. Next, you can browse through all the cashback offers of various e-retailers under different product categories. However, as Amit found out after his first few trials and some confusion, Pennyful is all about offer-browsing, not product-browsing.

If you want to zero in on the product you want to buy and the website you want to buy it from, you’ll have to Google it first. Once you know exactly what you want to buy and where you want to buy it from, check whether that e-retailer – Amazon in this case – has a tie-up with Pennyful. If Amazon features on Pennyful, then you click on the Amazon logo and are redirected to the site. Then, you follow the standard Amazon buying process. Pennyful gets you the promised cashback amount on your purchase after 90 days.

The Review:

Amit ordered a Xiaomi back cover for his latest Xiaomi phone and found the procedure extremely lengthy, especially because he was looking at a nominal cashback of only Rs.20, and that too after 90 days. This was made even more exasperating by the slow speed of the Pennyful server. The site performed decidedly slower than other tabs Amit loaded on his browser.

After selecting Amazon on Pennyful, Amit was asked to login, without any further directions. Amit assumed he had to log in to Pennyful again and repeatedly tried doing so, to no effect. He then keyed in his Amazon login details just to check, and it worked.

After placing the order, while the tracking data on Pennyful updated instantly, purchase-related details reflected after at least 2 hours. The cashback confirmation mail arrived 3 days later, incidentally also the day Amazon delivered his phone back cover.

Amit’s Verdict:

Amit felt the lack of clarity on how to navigate the Pennyful website, coupled with slow speed and low value cashbacks, made the entire experience one he will probably not opt for again.

Our Take:

It’s clear Pennyful is aware of its limitation when it comes to speed issues and is working towards fixing it. Just a few days after Amit had completed his review but before this post, Pennyful informed us they’ve come out with a browser extension to make cashback shopping easier. The add ons can be downloaded here for Chrome and here for Mozilla. A quick glance showed the add-on provides a much more fluid navigation experience with fewer distractions.

For Pennyful to make a mark in the world of cashback shopping, it needs to sort out its chinks, aim towards greater clarity in its navigation design and draw in more attractive cashback offers from top e-retailers.

Have you shopped on Pennyful and have a different experience to share? Write to us at info@realreviews.in and tell us what you thought or post in the Comments section below!