Question

Assalamu Alaykum,
I am doing e-commerce, and I have now found a company that provides a service of shipping, customer support, and product sourcing (and they can buy the product for you if you want, and then you give them the price they paid at the end of the month).
Within all of this, they charge a fixed fee of 49$ per month, and fixed charges per product (like shipping, confirmation, and call center).
My question is about a cashback they offer (in what they call a cashback program ) with these conditions: it’s only for clients who are purchasing all of their services (that I mentioned before) and Cashback can be retrieved for product sourcing only (you cant take the money, but it will stay within the company system for product sourcing only), including all shipments even if it’s refunded, returned, or delivered.
They offer 4 packages in this cashback program: bronze, silver, and so on… for example the bronze if you get 500 shipments or below you will get 0.25$ per shipment. The silver one when you get between 501 and 1000 shipments you get 0.5$ per shipment.
and the final one is the platinum where you get 1$ per shipment when you get above 3000 shipments.
Is this cashback halal or not?

Answer

Based on our understanding of what has been presented in the question, if you meet a certain amount of shipments you will receive some cashback per shipment which will discount your costs towards sourcing products. We are not aware of any reason for this type of arrangement to be unlawful. This is provided that no additional sums are required to enter the cashback program. If you were required to pay additional sums towards the cashback program then this could lead to an interest-based transaction.

Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow

Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel