By initially using a small portion of their advertising budget, member merchants their customers a rewards card that guarantees cash back with every purchase. These rewards are Incentives that are much more efficient than advertising in that they are paid only to real customers who buy! Customers are motivated to seek out member business because of these incentives. Many do all their shopping only through member merchants. Member merchants offer free shopping memberships (rewards cards) to their customers. Here is the best part. Merchants get paid a percentage of all the shopping done by their member-customers, where ever they shop within the community, any where in the world. This amount is usually much greater than the cost of the program.