eBay launches Rewards Program

eBay Bucks are going to be the rewards for purchasing more stuff on the online auction site. Apparently during this testing period invited users are able start with $5 of eBay Bucks after they sign up. Reward Program Participants can earn Bucks on based on a percentage of their qualifying purchases. They’ve posted the terms of the rewards program here, rewards.ebay.com. I quickly looked it over and for starters the program is INVITE ONLY, you earn rewards based on qualified purchases in most of the categories, and the rewards are usable for a 30-day period only.

Now, after signing into my eBay account to "Learn More" about the program I find that they are giving users 5% back on their purchase over the course of 1-month after which eBay will send a PayPal voucher of the amount of "Bucks" available which expires in another month. It seems like a straight-forward system. Earn Bucks throughout the month they designate and redeem them the following month. It is very limited for this trial probably for statistical purposes. With only a select timeframe available eBay will be able to get a good look at a huge segment of its users and their buying habits. I wouldn’t be surprised if they return with some interesting stats on how users react to this campaign.

I, however, will increase my usage of eBay with this rewards program as I haven’t been a steady user lately. I wonder if most of the users they sent the invite to have also been stagnant eBay users lately. I got the email at about 1am last night… woke up to "Yay! Another opportunity to spend the money pulled from already empty pockets." As a college student living with small means I put more energy into making wise purchases and the less I buy the more dinners I can afford.

[EDIT] From the eager mouth of eBay itself:

Mark your calendar, you can redeem your eBay Bucks from Aug 22-Sep 21.

Here’s how to redeem eBay Bucks

1. Go to www.eBay.com and log in with the User ID you used to sign up here.
2. Start shopping. Be sure the seller accepts PayPal.
3. Pick
   something you love with a value close to that of your eBay Bucks. (You
   may use it one time with a single order and a single seller. Any
   balance is forfeited.)
4. Pay for your item with PayPal before the expiration date: September 21, 2008  23:59:59 PM GMT-06:00
5. In eBay checkout enter the unique redemption code printed on your voucher.

Important Redemption Terms
You may only redeem your eBay Bucks voucher using PayPal and eBay checkout on eBay.com or motors.eBay.com, not Express.
Your eBay Bucks voucher will be valid from Aug 22-Sep 21.
The voucher is valid one time for a single transaction with a single
seller. If your voucher value is not completely used up in that one
transaction, the balance will be forfeited.