CBA's x15ventures launches a cheesy idea for Millennials to personalise their online shopping with cashback rewards

x15Ventures MD Toby Norton-Smith, and Cheddar MD Helen Hey

The Commonwealth Bank venture-scaling entity, x15ventures, has launched a new venture targeting Gen Z and Millennials with a brand and deal discovery shopping app that offers cashback rewards

Cheddar uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers discover personalised brands, authentic content and deals, alongside a rewards program, serving up bite-sized content in the style of TikTok and Instagram. It allows more than 600 merchants can serve up deals and offers to users.

That client base includes Menulog, Agoda, Under Armour, Net-A-Porter, Pizza Hut, Culture Kings and Cotton On.

“We combine social discovery, AI-driven personalisation and cashback into a fun, seamless and rewarding shopping experience. We’re focused on making young Australians’ money work harder, simply by rewarding them for being themselves and doing what they already love to do.

Hey engaged more than 1,000 young Australians in the design process during the pilot in order to create a product that delivers what they want.

“Merchants already using Cheddar have told us our engagement rates are significantly higher than the click through rates they see on other platforms,” she said.

x15ventures MD Toby Norton-Smith said they’d found two distinct behaviours in Gen-Z shoppers during research: ‘deal hacking’, involving loyalty email signups, multiple tabs and coupon codes and ‘digital window shopping’ finding inspiration through social and branded content.

“Cheddar offers the benefits of both – it aggregates and serves up the best deals, but is delivered in a way that’s shareable, engaging and actually feels fun,” he said.

“Australian retailers are innovating more rapidly than the search and social platforms that serve them – so, as we launch our MVP, we’d love to collaborate with merchants and invite them to help us build Cheddar’s roadmap.”

The latest product offering from x15 aligns with a strong focus on shopping by CBA, including the bank’s recent investment in gift card disrupter, Karta.

The Cheddar app is available from the Apple App store, and will roll out to Android and as a web-based experience early next year.