Kate Thornton’s accomplishments are quite as extraordinary as the woman herself.

By 21, she had become the UK’s youngest editor as she took the helm of music mag Smash Hits. Later, she graced our screens as the first X Factor presenter before moving into other TV ventures such as Loose Women, Pop Idol and This Morning.

Now though, Kate’s entrepreneurial spirit has moved into realms more rewarding still than reality TV shows and music publications: cashback.

Through her brainchild tbseen.com, Kate successfully unites amazing deals with riveting content provided by her incredible squad of friends – friends that include Myleene Klass and Denise van Outen.

She’s a big fan of ours too! Read her thoughts on BrandAlley here, and then see our fascinating chat with the savviest of shoppers below.

Hi Kate! What sparked your interest in starting tbseen.com?

The site, for me, was born out of consumer frustration. Like most of the women who use tbseen.com I was a habitual online shopper: always looking for the best deals and ways to save money. I wanted a site that handpicked the best brands with the best savings attached (doing all the hard work for me) that enabled me to shop my year and ‘spoke’ to me in a way that was helpful, entertaining and engaging. None of the other sites out there pulled all of that together under one roof. So I decided to build it myself!

Why use cashback?

The question is why wouldn’t you use cash back? It’s money back on the stuff you’re already buying. That’s a total no-brainer, right? No one wants to pay more than they have to, and by clicking though tbseen.com to the brands you love, you’ll always get a better price. And it’s not just cashback that we offer: we’re a deals platform so – as we’ve done with BrandAlley – there are exclusive voucher codes as well that give you savings with cashback attached. A double win!

(For the whole month of July, tbseen.com has an exclusive BrandAlley code which means you get £10 off anything you spend over £50, plus up to 8%cashback – Click Here to get the deal.)

So, as a customer that means as well as benefiting from Brand Alley’s brilliant discounts on great designers you also get a further two discounts via tbseen.com. That’s the kind of smart shopping we advocate!

What does cashback add to the shopping experience?

In a nutshell – cash! To spend wherever you like on whatever you like. So it’s not reward points or air miles that come with all sorts of conditions attached: it’s good old-fashioned money deposited back into your bank account at the end of every month.

Before I started the site, I added up what I could have made over the previous 12 months if I’d used cashback – and not just clothing, but food, travel, utility bills, beauty and homeware too. It came to £1,200!  That’s what made me want to start the business, I knew it made sense to the customer, plus I spend my days helping women save and earn money.

You’ve got quite the girl squad – how does working with them influence tbseen.com?

Thanks, they’ll be chuffed with that! The girls are tbseen.com and tbseen.com is the girls.

Everything we are as a business is informed by the girls.  It’s a site made by us for women like us. I hope tbseen.com feels like a friend; a really helpful friend that you’d always want at your side when you’re out shopping and who you trust to ensure you don’t miss a trick.

All of our video content (take a look, we have loads!) is pretty much a window into a world of 20 years of friendship, which I hope resonates with lots of women. We talk about and showcase a whole range of stuff from relationships (good and bad) to what’s in our make-up bags and everything in between.

Female friendships are so powerful and I think we all have our own ‘squads’: ‘go-to’ girlfriends who are always there for you come good times or bad. Hopefully, users of the site can identify with a lot of the things we do and talk about and enjoy listening in on the life and times of 12 friends that have been propping each other up for more years than we care to remember.

Who’s the savviest saver in your group of 12?

Good question! It’s definitely not Mel – she’s self -confessed bad/uninterested in money. Tam and Myleene are both really good when it comes to spotting a good deal. In fact, they were my first calls when I was starting out with the idea of setting up the site: I wanted their advice because they’re both really savvy and great sounding boards

What roles do they play in terms of both friendship and in business?

All of the video content we have on the site is a total team effort. Some of the girls have their own specific blogs and areas of ‘expertise.’ Tamzin is a serial property renovator who knows how to turn a home around so she blogs about interiors for us and Heidi is getting married later this year so she’s been sharing her countdown to her big day via her wedding blog, which has been a real hit with our users.

Lisa and Amanda are both in charge of the video content we create around food and fitness because that’s their areas of expertise (we have food hacks, recipes and work-outs in abundance). Our make-up artists and stylists share their tips, best products and recommendations via their own blogs and video tutorials, so the roles they all play are vital.

How would you say tbseen.com and BrandAlley are similar?

We’re both the epitome of smart shopping – and when you combine the two it’s unbeatable in terms of the value we can offer our users. You guys pick the best brands that you know your customers love, and so do we. You work hard to get the best possible deals for your customers, and so do we. And we absolutely share the same tastes so I’d say we’re pretty compatible bedfellows!

Which is your favourite tbseen.com brand so far?

The reason tbseen.com works so well is because we house all of the brands we know our users love and use. Our mission when it came to picking the brands we wanted on the site was that, collectively, they’d span your shopping year, enabling users to earn and save on every aspect of what they spend, be it a great pair of shoes, groceries, a take-away, a crate of wine or a holiday. So tbseen.com wouldn’t work if we couldn’t offer you everything, But, when it comes to fashion and homeware you only have to check my BrandAlley ‘order’ history to see that you are one of my most regular visits.

Which is your favourite BrandAlley label to date?

How long have you got? I love J Brand jeans and can’t bring myself to pay full price because I know you always have them cheaper. I treated myself to an amazing Temperley jacket last year and haven’t stopped wearing it since, so in terms of cost per wear it’s been amazing value! In other news, I bought some rather genius Jocca Tupperware from you which I love almost as much as handbags!

You say you have a ‘retail heart’ – what else takes up room in your heart?

My son. He’s the owner of my heart.

Click Here to get your exclusive code which means you get £10 off anything you spend over £50, plus up to 8%cashback