Cashback Explained I How It Works and Use Cases ?

Cashback has steadily worked its way into buying habits in France. More and more businesses use it to stand out, but few people actually understand how the mechanism works, or why a merchant would benefit from offering it. Here are the basics, from how it works to concrete use cases for a merchant.

The basic principle

Cashback is a promotional technique that refunds part of a purchase amount to the customer, usually as a percentage. The rate varies by company or platform, from a few percent up to sometimes 20% or more on targeted offers.

The main types of cashback

Online cashback, driven by platforms like Poulpeo, iGraal or Joko: these sites earn a commission on purchases made through their link and pass part of it back to the user. The money accumulates until a withdrawal threshold, usually collected via bank transfer.

Card-based cashback, offered by players like Boursorama, LCL or Orange Bank: every purchase made with the card is partially refunded and credited automatically, with no extra step from the user.

Referral-linked cashback often layers on top of the first two: the customer earns an extra bonus for each person they bring onto the platform, speeding up how fast gains accumulate.

Why it works for a merchant

Cashback isn't just a consumer perk, it's a measurable commercial lever. A study by the Syndicat National du Marketing de Performance already showed cashback can lift average online basket size by 10% to 20%. The mechanism works because it turns a regular purchase into an experience where the customer feels like they're gaining something, which encourages loyalty and repeat purchases.

What limits cashback adoption today is operational friction: high withdrawal thresholds, multi-day transfer delays, manual commission management. For a merchant, setting up a classic cashback program often means adding an extra technical and administrative layer to manage.

The use case that changes things: cashback and crypto payment

A crypto payment settled instantly changes the cashback mechanics. Where classic cashback imposes a multi-day wait before the reward lands, crypto settlement allows near-instant crediting, without the usual bank transfer friction. For an e-commerce merchant or a physical retailer wanting to offer an attractive loyalty program, building on crypto payment infrastructure already in place simplifies implementation compared to a standalone cashback system.

What Lyzi brings to this specific use case

Lyzi isn't a cashback platform, it's a crypto payment infrastructure for merchants. But because settlement happens in crypto or in regulated stablecoins such as EURC or USDC, a merchant using Lyzi already has the technical building block needed to build a fast, low-friction cashback or loyalty program, without integrating a separate third-party cashback provider on top of their PSP.

For an independent merchant or a premium brand, it's an additional commercial argument to activate on infrastructure already deployed, rather than a new project built from scratch.

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