How do you grow a business from a three-person Airbnb team to millions of shoppers and billions in transactions? In this episode, Matthias welcomes Angus “Gus” Muffet, General Manager of ShopBack Australia & New Zealand, who has been at the heart of ShopBack’s incredible rise over the past years. From his early days in hospitality to leading roles at Groupon and now shaping affiliate innovation, Gus shares the pivotal moments and growth strategies that turned ShopBack into a market leader.
From Hotel Lobbies to Digital Commerce
Matthias: “Welcome to the Partner Marketing Podcast. Today I'm joined by Angus Muffett, General Manager of ShopBack Australia and New Zealand. Gus, you are a leader in the cashback and rewards space who has grown the business from a three-person Airbnb team to millions of shoppers and billions in transactional value. Welcome to the show. Shall we start by having you introduce yourself a little - what you’re up to, what you’ve done — so we can get a better understanding of what you’re doing?”
Gus: “Thanks for including us in your show. I'm really excited to share the journey that we've been on. I'm the General Manager, as you said, for Australia and New Zealand at ShopBack. I've been with ShopBack now for seven years, having spent time in other e-commerce giants like Groupon. Prior to that, I actually had a very non-linear path into e-commerce and subsequently into affiliate marketing.”
Gus begins by sharing his unconventional career path. After finishing school, his first professional experience was in the hospitality industry, working at a five-star hotel in Sydney. He recalls that this early exposure to service, teamwork, and fast-paced operations gave him an invaluable foundation for what would later become his leadership style. In hospitality, he learned to read customers, manage diverse teams, and deliver exceptional experiences - skills that translated perfectly into e-commerce.
The leap into digital commerce came when he joined Groupon in 2013, at a time when the company was considered one of the fastest-growing businesses in the world. There, Gus managed the national sales team, negotiating with large enterprise brands ranging from theme parks and cinema chains to quick-service restaurants. He worked closely with Groupon’s marketing department to bring brand campaigns to life, gaining firsthand experience in Partner Marketing and performance-driven campaigns.
Discovering ShopBack and Taking a Leap of Faith
After five years at Groupon, Gus was approached by recruiters from ShopBack, a startup based in Singapore that was expanding into Australia. At the time, cashback as a concept was still unfamiliar to most Australian consumers, and Gus admits that he initially didn’t fully understand the potential of the business. However, one of his own team members left Groupon to join ShopBack and spent several months convincing Gus of the opportunity.
Eventually, Gus met with ShopBack’s founders, who outlined their ambitious vision for a regional and global cashback ecosystem. Their passion convinced him to take what he calls a “night-and-day leap” from a global corporation to a small, entrepreneurial company. When he joined, ShopBack had only about 150 employees worldwide and virtually no presence in Australia.
He vividly recalls that the Australian office was no larger than a small room with peach-colored walls and no windows, occupied by just four people. Yet the team was fiercely driven by a mission: to take ShopBack from an idea operating out of an Airbnb to a platform serving millions of Australians.
The Challenge of Building a Marketplace from Scratch
Gus describes one of the toughest challenges any marketplace faces - the “chicken-and-egg” problem. ShopBack had to build a two-sided platform, balancing the need for merchants (supply) with the need for shoppers (demand). Without brands, there would be nothing for users to buy; without users, there would be no incentive for brands to participate.
The solution lay in credibility and persistence. ShopBack’s early traction in Southeast Asia provided proof of concept, allowing Gus and his team to show potential Australian partners that the model worked. Tom Howard, who led business development at the time, reportedly went door-to-door - literally inviting potential partners for coffee meetings and explaining ShopBack’s vision.
Gus: “Tom Howard, who was running the business development function - and still is today - on day one, I’ve heard stories from affiliate networks or brands where he took them out for a coffee and said, ‘Look, you know, I’m Tom from ShopBack. ShopBack’s big in Southeast Asia. We have zero customers in Australia, but you’ve got to believe that we’re on a mission to become Australia’s leading rewards player. Here’s what it looks like in other markets,’ so that brands could get a sense of how they’d be placed on ShopBack and how we do our marketing.”
Affiliate networks also played a key role in accelerating growth. While ShopBack went direct with some major brands, it relied heavily on affiliate networks to integrate quickly into the Australian digital ecosystem. This combination of direct partnerships and network collaboration helped establish a strong supply base early on.
On the consumer side, the first wave of growth came from young female shoppers, particularly in the fashion category. ShopBack invested in influencer marketing, partnering with up-and-coming social media personalities and reality TV contestants. As these influencers gained followers, ShopBack’s reach expanded organically, fueling its first major growth wave.
ShopBack’s Model and What Makes It Different
Gus describes ShopBack as a double-sided affiliate marketplace, similar in spirit to Amazon or eBay, but with a unique twist: its focus on rewards and cashback. On one side, brands and merchants provide offers and promotions; on the other, consumers use ShopBack to discover deals and earn money back on their purchases. When users click through the ShopBack app, website, or browser extension and make a purchase, the merchant pays a commission to ShopBack, which then shares a portion of it with the customer as cashback.
ShopBack’s most powerful differentiator, Gus explains, is its mobile-first DNA. Originating in Southeast Asia - where consumers leapfrogged desktop shopping and went straight to mobile - the company built an exceptionally strong app experience. By the time ShopBack entered Australia, it already had a fully developed mobile app, giving it a decisive advantage. Today, over 70% of all transactions in Australia occur via mobile.
The company also boasts impressive scale: 4,500 connected brands, 250 gift-card partners, and over 3,000 in-store outlets where shoppers can pay using the ShopBack app and still earn rewards.
Understanding Markets: Australia, New Zealand, and Beyond
ShopBack now operates in 12 international markets, and Gus points out that no two are alike. Southeast Asian countries, he explains, are driven by a culture of monthly “mega sale days” - such as 8.8, 9.9, and 11.11 - while Australia and New Zealand follow a more Western retail calendar, emphasizing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Boxing Day.
In Australia, ShopBack has grown to over three million members, a significant figure in a country of 26 million people. Yet Gus insists the market remains “underpenetrated,” especially compared to more mature cashback economies like the U.S. or the U.K.
New Zealand, by contrast, is described as a greenfield opportunity. With more than 250,000 users and little direct competition, the market is growing fast but requires substantial consumer education. ShopBack has had to teach both users and merchants what cashback is and how it works.
Gus: “New Zealand, though, is an interesting one. It's our fastest-growing market to date. Fun fact — we’ve clicked over, I don’t know what the live number is, but it’s well north of 250,000 customers out of a population of four and a half million. Interestingly, it’s quite a greenfield market, as there are no other cashback and rewards players over there. It’s great because a lot of customers are coming in and enjoying it. On the other hand, it’s challenging because you have to do the job of education, especially around what it feels like on the merchant side.”
Gus also explains how each market has its own consumer psychology. In Southeast Asia, apps are dense with information and features, reflecting local expectations for multifunctional “super apps.” In Western markets like Australia, simplicity and clean design dominate. For this reason, each country’s ShopBack team has autonomy to adapt the app’s layout, campaigns, and offers to local preferences.
How Australians Shop and Save
When asked about the Australian consumer, Gus notes that Australians are curious, pragmatic, and value-conscious. They are comfortable experimenting with new digital tools and are quick to embrace global shopping phenomena. Six years ago, he observes, hardly anyone at an Australian barbecue would have known what Black Friday was. Today, nearly everyone participates.
Australian shoppers tend to compare prices across multiple brands before committing to a purchase. They care deeply about shipping costs, delivery speed, and return policies, and they are loyal to platforms that consistently deliver the best total value. Gus believes this blend of curiosity and practicality makes Australia an ideal environment for ShopBack’s continued innovation.
Innovation Beyond Cashback: The Expansion of ShopBack
Although cashback remains ShopBack’s core business, Gus details how the company has evolved into a multi-category engagement platform. During the COVID-19 pandemic, ShopBack introduced payments and gift cards, enabling the company to process transactions directly rather than solely redirecting users to partner websites. This new capability allowed users to buy gift cards from hundreds of brands while earning cashback, turning into a $150 million business in under three years.
Building on that foundation, ShopBack launched in-store cashback programs, allowing users to earn rewards at thousands of physical outlets across Australia.
Perhaps the most surprising innovation is ShopBack Play, a feature that lets users earn cashback by playing mobile games. Introduced in late 2024, this initiative taps into the growing global mobile gaming market. Users can download games such as Monopoly or Fruit Ninja and receive cashback as they progress through levels. Gus emphasizes that this is not just entertainment - it’s an entirely new way for ShopBack to engage users and cross-promote other offers within the app.
Another upcoming category is survey-based cashback, rewarding users for completing brand and market research surveys. This model compensates people for their time and opinions, extending ShopBack’s reach beyond commerce into lifestyle engagement.
The Future: AI, Conversational Commerce, and Change
The discussion then shifts to one of the most critical forces reshaping the digital landscape: artificial intelligence. Gus predicts that AI will fundamentally change how people search for and discover products, moving from traditional keyword-based search engines to conversational search experiences.
He introduces the idea of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) - a next-generation form of SEO designed to ensure that AI systems like ChatGPT or Google Gemini can find and recommend a company’s offers. Gus admits that no one knows exactly how quickly this shift will happen, but he is certain it will come. Companies that fail to adapt, he warns, risk becoming the next BlackBerry, Kodak, or Blockbuster - giants who missed critical turning points.
Conclusion – Lessons in Adaptability and Vision
This episode offers far more than a behind-the-scenes look at ShopBack. It is a case study in how vision, adaptability, and human insight can transform a small startup into a multi-market leader.
From Gus Muffett’s early lessons in customer service to his strategic understanding of digital ecosystems, every part of his story reinforces the idea that successful companies are built on empathy, speed, and a willingness to evolve. ShopBack’s journey - from cashback pioneer to multi-channel engagement platform - illustrates how affiliate marketing can evolve into something broader: a lifestyle ecosystem that rewards participation in every form.
Listen to the entire episode on Spotify, Apple Podcast, our website, and all other podcast platforms.
About The Partner Marketing Podcast
The podcast brings together thought leaders and professionals from across the globe. In each episode, our host, Matthias, sits down with guests to discuss the evolving world of Partner Marketing and share personal stories.