Shoprunner + Portal = ?
I was recently in contact with someone in the shopping portal industry and he mentioned as an aside that Shoprunner may negate portal cashback. I was very surprised to hear this since I’ve never seen anyone mention that; everyone just mentions Shoprunner as this cute, easy way of getting free shipping.
After a little digging, I found in the BeFrugal T&CÂ that they write clearly that Shoprunner can make problems with portal cashback.
Can I use ShopRunner and still earn Cash Back?
No. To ensure Cash Back, you should not use ShopRunner, including their toolbar or extension.
I was very perplexed by this because when using Shoprunner you don’t need to click-through from Shoprunner to the merchant. So long as you are signed into your Shoprunner account, the system automatically pops up with the ‘free shipping with Shoprunner’ option. If there’s no click-through, then there’s seemingly no way for them to place their cookie on the order and thus the portal cookie should work fine.
If you look at the language of BeFrugal (“to ensure Cash Back”), it also does not sound convincingly that it will always negate the cashback.
My Thoughts
My best guess right now is this: Shoprunner is technically a paid subscription service – they like to compare themselves to Amazon Prime. Thus, you can use Shoprunner without doing a click-through. In that case there is no cookie placed by Shoprunner and you will earn the regular portal points/cash-back, without Shoprunner harming you. However, Shoprunner tries making a buck wherever they could. If you click-through the Shoprunner site or if you use their toolbar or extension, then they’ll place a cookie of their own which may negate the other cookie placed by the portal.
If my theory is correct then it would be safe to use Shoprunner by signing in to your account but not clicking through to the merchant. (Also, make sure not to download their toolbar or extension.)
If my theory is wrong then we have to rethink when we use Shoprunner and when we don’t. It could often be worthwhile to use Shoprunner even at the risk of losing portal cashback, depending on  how much the shipping cost is and how much the portal cashback is.
If anyone has any data points or knowledge on using Shoprunner in conjunction with a shopping portal, please let us know in the comments.
New Partners
In other Shoprunner news, we reported that Staples now partners with Shoprunner. As noted there, this isn’t huge news in regard to free shipping since that’s easy to come by with Staples, but it could be important with regard to free return shipping for an item you wish to return.
It’s also been publicized  recently that Newegg is now partnering with Shoprunner again which is great to be able to get free shipping with no minimum from Newegg. Back in December 2014 Newegg dropped Shoprunner, but they have now re-partnered with them and are clearly advertised on the Shoprunner site.
