American airlines and other airlines use a similar method as what is being used with SimbaDeals. They get paid by having consumers use their website, which they are then transferred to the merchant's website. They only difference is that these websites entice the consumer by offering them airline points for using the airline website. The consumer, however, still ends up making the purchase at the merchant's site. Some Corporations, such as Bank of America, use similar sites that they offer to their employees in which they earn points. These sites are used by thousands of Bank of America Employees (I was one of them and purchased thousand of dollars worth of goods on their site). I wonder if an incentive can be worked in to this equation, such as store only offering certain discounted items through SimbaDeals, which would encourage the consumer to keep looking to Simbadeals for products.
Either way, there are certain sites that have still been successful without offering incentives, such as Kayak for Airline tickets. Many people still choose to go this route for convenience, although they do not earn airline points for using the third party website. Same with hotel reservations. I have always thought this was crazy! Why book somewhere where you will not be rewarded! With just a little bit of effort, you can just go directly to the airline website or hotel chain website and use your Frequent Flyer account to earn points for the flight. But again people still choose convenience.
I think Simbadeals will appeal to those "lazy" people, who prefer convenience over reward. The site will still make money. But again, I do hope that they refine the agreements they have with merchants or make other arrangements, such as certain deals like free shipping, in order to continue driving customers to SimbaDeals.
