An Internet start-up is melding American's love of shopping with their obsession for the stock market.
Stockback, a New York-based company that officially launches its service Tuesday, bills itself as the first-ever consumer stock ownership program.
Consumers who buy from participating merchants through its website at www.stockback.com don't earn airline miles or reward points, but cash rebates that they can put into the company's no-minimum, no-load investment program.
"We are trying to offer mainstream America the opportunity to have, in many cases, their first mutual fund," says Debbie Parrott, a Stockback spokeswoman. "As hokey as it sounds, our goal is to democratize stock ownership. We are providing consumers with an unlimited number of stockback earning occasions every day."
Stockback, built on $33 million in venture capital funding, says it plans to offer only one investment option to start with -- the Stockback Fund made up partly of the stock of participating merchants, such as Dell, Barnes & Noble, CVS.com and PlanetRx.com. Later there will be more fund options, Ms. Parrott says, and a way to provide financial guidance to all the new investors it hones to create.
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