Shop.com

It was brought to my attention the other day that there's a super convenient website and app that allows you to buy from many different websites and stores. It's called shop.com. Even better, they even give you money back for shopping using their service!

But how do they make their money? It seems too good to be true, doesn't it? Where did that saying go? Well, I don't know why people stopped with the phrase "if it's too good to be true, it probably is," but I do know partially how this company makes money.

You're the product.

You are willingly only buying from this marketplace, meaning that your payment information and purchases are managed through this one application. They are selling the purchasing data you're willingly handing over, just to save a tiny bit of time. That's where the couple cents back comes from, too! They're making a good sum of money for every sale, and they're handing you back a couple pennies (if they still made those). People always wonder how companies know so much about you. It's because you're giving them the information so willy-nilly. They use that data to entice you with similar products all the time. There's also targeted advertising using that data.

They know everything about you.

Guys. Don't use shop.com. You're the product to them. They don't care about you. They hardly know that you exist. They just know that you're giving them money. You're a number.