The panel, called Quidco Opinions, has been developed in partnership with online survey company Pureprofile.

Panellists are recruited from the main pool of Quidco members, which numbered 3.75m at the last count, according to data and insight director Chris Catchpole.

Once signed up, panellists can be invited to take surveys for which they earn additional cashback on top of their existing Quidco rewards. “We’re paying them about 10p a minute in terms of time spent in surveys,” said Catchpole.

The panel will be made available to the general research community, as well as to the merchants that Quidco partners with for the main part of its business.

Quidco has been in existence for almost a decade. It’s part of the affiliate marketing industry, which provides sales leads to retailers and merchants, both online and offline. When a sale is made, Quidco earns a commission off the sale, which it returns to the shopper in the form of a cashback.

“We know a lot about what our customers are buying, where they buy it and how frequently,” said Catchpole. “But where we’re not so strong is in the understanding of attitudes and emotions and the demographic characteristics of our customers.

“Our sign-up process is very light, so we wanted to look at ways of enriching the picture of the consumers we have. Rather than going out and purchasing data and matching it back, we realised it was better to launch our own research panel.”

According to Catchpole, £810m-worth of sales were made through Quidco links and coupons last year, with £50m in cashback earned.

Quidco as a whole is growing at a rate of 50,000 to 80,000 members a month. Meanwhile, the Quidco Opinions panel is adding around 9,000 panellists a month.