FAQ’s

Upside helps retailers attract new and repeat customers and build lasting loyalty by influencing shopping behavior at key decision moments. ‍

Customer acquisition: Upside is designed to reach uncommitted shoppers — consumers who aren't loyal to any single brand. Through its marketplace and partner network, Upside reaches millions of consumers with personalized, one-to-one offers based on real shopping behavior. These targeted promotions are compelling enough to influence where and when customers shop, while remaining profitable for retail partners. Retailers only pay when Upside delivers proven, incremental sales.‍

Customer retention: Upside helps turn first-time visitors into repeat customers. Personalized incentives motivate customers to come back, increasing visit frequency over time and helping retailers build sustainable shopping habits and long-term customer value.

In certain categories, Upside limits participation by design to give its retail partners a meaningful competitive advantage. Once a grocery, fuel, or restaurant retailer partners with Upside, nearby competitors in that category may no longer be eligible to join, helping steer customer demand toward participating locations instead of surrounding alternatives.

Exclusivity is determined based on location and category and is granted on a first-come, first-served basis. Because space is intentionally limited, opportunities to participate can close as markets fill. This approach ensures Upside can deliver real value to its partners by concentrating demand and driving incremental customer visits rather than spreading offers too thin across competitors.

Upside’s personalization ensures every offer is unique, relevant, and profitable — driving measurable results for both consumers and businesses. Upside uses machine learning to analyze data and determine the exact incentive needed to motivate each individual to make a purchase. The algorithm considers:

• Transaction-level data to understand each customer's behavior patterns
• A retailer’s margin to ensure all offers are profitable
• Real-time data and predictive analytics to tailor each offer to the specific consumer, transaction, and business

The result: Offers that maximize both consumer value and partner profit.

The Upside app helps users earn cash back on everyday purchases at participating gas stations, convenience stores, grocery stores, and restaurants across the U.S. Users claim personalized cash back offers in the app, pay as usual, earn cash back, and then cash out their earnings anytime. All offers can be used alongside most retailer loyalty programs and credit card rewards.

Upside users earn cash back on everyday purchases like gas, groceries, and dining out — making their money go further, especially as inflation and prices rise. The app provides personalized, easy-to-access offers that encourage users to visit businesses they might otherwise skip. Many consumers report that Upside is the main reason they return to certain businesses or choose one retailer over another — even going out of their way for the extra incentive. The app is free, simple to use, and at some locations, works alongside other rewards or loyalty programs, so users can stack their benefits and maximize savings.

Loyalty programs retain customers. Upside acquires and reactivates them. Together, they create a powerful engine for attracting new customers and deepening engagement with existing ones.

Upside complements existing loyalty programs — it doesn't compete with them. Loyalty programs reach existing customers and reward loyal behavior, but have limited reach with new customers. Upside excels at acquisition: It sends targeted, personalized offers to customers who haven't visited a retailer’s location or aren't motivated by loyalty offers alone. 

Once Upside brings a new customer on site and drives repeat visits, retailers are better positioned to convert those customers into loyalty members.

No, Upside does not compete with retail partners’ loyalty programs or existing marketing initiatives—instead, it complements and strengthens them. Upside targets customers that loyalty programs can’t reach, such as new shoppers or those who prioritize convenience or price over brand loyalty. This expands a partner’s audience without cannibalizing its existing base. 

In fact, Upside can boost loyalty program signups: Upside users are 2–3x more likely to join a retailer’s loyalty program after visiting, compared to similar customers not using Upside.

Upside’s partner network refers to an ecosystem of strategic partnerships that offer retailers exposure across a number of apps and platforms, including major brands like Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Chime, One Finance, DoorDash, and more. This network extends retail partners’ reach across 35+ million consumers, driving measurable, incremental business results with no additional work or risk.

Note that only retailers with a receiptless Upside experience — wherein Upside verifies user purchases directly against retailer transaction data — will be discoverable through our partner network.

Upside’s offer engine generates promotions using a data-driven, personalized approach to ensure every offer drives consumer behavior while remaining profitable to the retailer. Several factors are taken into account, including:

• The retailer’s margin: The algorithm guarantees promotions stay within a retailer’s available margin, so no offer becomes unprofitable. 
• Individual consumer behavior: Upside leverages up to 24 factors to personalize each offer based on what will motivate that specific customer.
• Machine learning and predictive analytics: Real-time adjustments as user behavior and market conditions shift. Offers are dynamic and adjust in real time.

For example, new or infrequent customers may receive higher offers to encourage adoption, while loyal customers typically need lower incentives. As a result, every offer is optimized for both consumer relevance and retailer profitability.

Upside offers are personalized, so they vary by user, location, and even time of day. Each individual offer depends on: 

• Local factors like how busy they are, time of day, and what they need to attract more customers.
• What we’ve learned about how each customer responds to different offer amounts. 

Because we work within the retailer’s profit margin, offers may be lower when that margin narrows.

Upside Pay is Upside’s in-app payment experience that lets shoppers pay through the Upside app and get cash back in minutes instead of days, while helping retailers keep those rewards and transactions inside their own ecosystem and lower payment costs. Users enjoy a seamless, secure mobile payment process and a quicker cash back experience, leading to increased satisfaction. Consequently, retailers see improved user engagement and retention — providing more opportunities to earn incremental profit.

Getting started with Upside is easy. Retailers share anonymized transaction data with Upside in one of two ways: either directly with Upside, or through an existing third-party data provider.

If you work directly with Upside, you’ll share 12 months of historical data for each location using a secure transfer. If you already use a third-party provider, you can simply authorize Upside to access your transaction data through them.

Retailers have the flexibility to cancel according to the notice, term, and wind-down provisions in their specific Upside agreement. Retailers can choose not to renew the standard term-based agreement by providing written notice at least 30 days before the end of the current term. Early terminations must follow the contract’s notice and wind-down requirements, and retailers will remain responsible for all fees and promotions through the wind-down period. More specific information can be found in each retailer’s specific agreement or by speaking with an Upside account manager.

The Upside Dashboard is your go-to destination for real-time insights into your performance. Access it at dashboard.upside.com/home.

The Upside Dashboard tracks:

• Sales lift
• Customer acquisition
• Incremental sales
• Bottom-line impact
• Top-performing locations
• Deeper customer insights

Need more help? If you need help interpreting the data or want insights beyond what's available in the dashboard, Upside's account management team can provide additional analysis and recommendations tailored to your business goals.

Implementation duration depends on a retailer’s specific technical requirements and any third-party dependencies. Most of the work happens on the back end by the Upside team, meaning the implementation process creates minimal work for retailers’ internal teams.

Upside provides dedicated, comprehensive support from onboarding through launch and beyond to ensure partners get maximum value from the program. Our team takes on most of the work, while our retailer partners work closely with us in an advisory capacity.

‍Onboarding includes:

• Program education for retailer employees
• Technical onboarding
• Design and brand support
• Additional resources tailored to retail partner needs‍

‍Ongoing support:

• Dedicated account management
• Real-time analytics
• Consumer growth initiatives
• Regular surveys to collect feedback and improve the program

Today, Upside partners with fuel stations, convenience stores, car washes, grocery stores, restaurants, and hardware stores. In some categories, when a retailer joins, nearby competitors are blocked from joining the platform within a defined geographic area. This gives early adopters a secure, unique market advantage.

Note that there may also be technical and operational requirements that prevent some retailers from joining. Reach out today to see if you are eligible.

Upside partners with fuel stations, convenience stores, grocery stores, restaurants, and hardware stores. The company’s goal is to bring together a diverse mix of businesses where consumers make frequent, everyday purchases. As more types of retailers join, the marketplace becomes more valuable for both consumers and Upside’s retail partners, driving increased engagement and incremental profit for all participants.

The Upside app is not just for fuel retailers and partners. The app helps users earn cash back on everyday purchases at over 100,000 participating convenience stores, grocery stores, restaurants, hardware stores — and yes, gas stations. Upside’s partner network extends these offers to users of other major platforms, such as Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and more, making even more types of purchases eligible for cash back.

No. Upside currently only partners with businesses in the U.S.

Upside supports fleet cards for fuel purchases with safeguards to ensure retailers’ profitability. Fleet cards can be used for fuel purchases on the platform. Upside applies specialized margin and offer logic designed for the unique economics of fleet transactions and works closely with retailers to ensure profitability and prevent double-dipping. 

This capability is evolving. Note that some proprietary or cost-plus fleet cards may be excluded from offers if their economics cannot be accurately measured. Upside is performing ongoing product development to address both retailer and user needs.

It's free to join. Upside uses a performance-based model—retail partners only pay when the platform delivers proven, incremental sales. Upside’s profit-sharing fee comes only from the additional profit generated through Upside. All costs are tied directly to the incremental profit delivered. The result: A low-risk, results-driven solution where retailers only pay for measurable growth.

Upside uses a pay-for-performance model. There are no flat, monthly, or start-up fees; Upside only charges on incremental profit. If a transaction would have happened without Upside, or is not profitable, the retailer isn’t charged for the profit share fee or the user promotion. The profit share fee is Upside’s way of sharing in the incremental value it creates for your business. When retailers win, we all win.

Upside’s revenue is earned from a share of the incremental profit it generates for its retail partners. If Upside can’t prove that profit was the result of its promotion, it doesn’t charge a fee. Upside’s success is directly aligned with the success of its retailers.

Upside collects two types of data to power personalized offers and measure their effectiveness.

First, Upside collects data from users — much of which is already on purchase receipts — when they create an Upside account or claim a cash back offer. This helps us personalize our offers and verify user purchases with participating retailers. Our third-party card processing partners collect users’ full card number (PAN) and help us verify their credit card details.

Second, the platform collects transaction data from retailers, with all personally identifiable information (PII) removed. This de-identified data includes things like the site or location identifier, the transaction timestamp, and the first six and last four digits of the card used.

Upside uses both types of data together to generate personalized cash back offers for users, match consumer claims to retailer transaction records, and measure how effective offers are at driving incremental business. Retailers’ data always belongs only to them; we never share or sell that data. To learn more about the data Upside collects, visit the Upside Trust Center.

Upside keeps your data safe using a combination of industry-leading security practices, strict data governance, and contractual safeguards. Upside only uses de-identified consumer data provided by retailers — data with no personally identifiable information (PII). All retailer data is encrypted in transit and at rest using bank-grade encryption and stored in Amazon Web Services’ highly secure cloud environment. Upside limits access to retailer data on a need-to-know basis and never sells or shares it. We also do not sell any personal data collected in our App.. The company maintains ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification and complies with privacy regulations, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and similar state data privacy laws. To learn more about data security, visit the Upside Trust Center.

We do not sell the personal data collected in our App or the transactional information we receive from our merchant partners. See Upside’s Privacy Policy for more details, or visit the Upside Trust Center for more on Upside’s data handling policies and security measures.

Before a store launches on Upside, there’s a step-by-step process to ensure a data feed is accurate and reliable. Here’s a simplified overview of the process.

Step 1: Review a sample. Upside starts by reviewing a sample data file that includes representative transactions across different store types and scenarios. Upside collaborates with the retail partner to ensure the data is complete and correct, working together until the sample meets all requirements.

Step 2: Collect historical data. Upside requests 12 months of a retailer’s historical transaction data and sets up secure transfer protocols (usually SFTP) to ensure safe data transmission.

Step 3: Build and test. For some retailers, Upside builds a custom data ingestion engine and performs quality assurance testing to certify that everything is accurate, complete, and ready for use. For others, Upside has partnerships in place that allow the retailer to simply sign and launch in just a few days.

Upside will always ensure retail partners are set up for success before stores go live on the platform.

Only specific Upside employees whose roles require it can see the data Upside collects. Access is tightly controlled through access control lists, strong identity management best practices, and multi-factor authentication. See Upside’s Privacy Policy for more details, or review Upside’s data governance and security practices through the Upside's Trust Center.

Upside’s Privacy Policy is available on the website, where you can toggle between English and Spanish versions of the policy. You can also make a privacy request or opt out online.

Consumer fraud is a known risk, but Upside actively monitors, detects, and mitigates these attempts to protect both the platform and its partners. Upside conducts weekly fraud sweeps and manual reviews of flagged receipts and suspicious transactions. Upside also uses machine learning and receipt verification tools to detect fake or manipulated receipts. The company places strict limits on daily offer claims and suspends or bans users found to be engaging in fraudulent activity. While fraud attempts do occur, Upside has robust systems and operational controls in place to make it hard for consumers to scam the system successfully.

Yes, millions of Americans rely on the Upside app to earn cash back every time they spend. Read more on the Upside blog.