Archive for August, 2009

Bing’s Double Cashback for Clunkers Prematurely Ends

What do you do when your promotion runs more wildly popular than you could ever have hoped for?

You end it of course.

Scheduled to run until the end of the month, Bing’s double Cashback program in which Microsoft matched the percentage that merchants were giving back to consumers, has ended a few days early due to them hitting a cap of how much they paying out to consumers.

“Due to an overwhelming, positive response from our Bing cashback shoppers, we’ve now closed our limited time back-to-school promotion where Microsoft increased the percentage of cashback rewards on behalf of retailers.”

Previously they had asked merchants to lower the % they were giving back, citing “it was in shoppers’ best interest to adjust the percentage of a few retailers to allow more customers to take advantage of double cashback”, but the ending of the program confirms our suspicions that Microsoft was simply taking the frugal (not to be confused with Froogle) approach this time around–something they’re generally not known for.

Lest they believe of course that ending the program earlier would again allow more customers to take advantage of the non-existent program.

Still, it’s been a wildly successful promotion for Microsoft and merchants alike, as many have seen sales go through the roof due to savvy consumers finding great deals on products.

Now if only the federal government can follow suit with automobiles.

Just a thought.

Source: TechCrunchk for you.

Cashback for Clunkers

How popular is Bing’s Double Cashback program?

Too popular, according to an Internet Retailer report.

Whereas typical merchants on Bing’s program were giving back around 5-15% of the order value back to the consumer, Microsoft was currently matching that amount, thereby doubling the amount of money a consumer was getting back on each purchases.

The promotion began on the 10th and will run until the end of August in an attempt to further promote their program to merchants and consumers alike.

Ashford.com, a merchant selling watches, was offering consumers 25% back, which Microsoft would match giving watch buyers a 50% discount.

However as with all good things, Microsoft tried, and successfully put an end to it:

On Thursday, Microsoft asked Ashford and an undisclosed number of other retailers to reduce the amount of their cashback to ensure the program can continue through the end of the month, as planned.

Microsoft responds:

“With hundreds of retailers participating and a set cap on the promotion funding, we felt it was in shoppers’ best interest to adjust the percentage of a few retailers to allow more customers to take advantage of double cashback. Through the cooperation of our partners, we’re able to continue the promotion beyond this week and allow more consumers to take advantage of the great money saving deals at Bing cashback.

We’re not quite sure how giving consumers less money back would allow more customers to take advantage of “double cashback”, which makes us wonder why Microsoft would want to scale back something that apparently succeeded beyond their expectations.

The program wasn’t going to run for very much longer, and while there apparently was a high number of merchants participating, Microsoft certainly isn’t a company short on funds, particularly when it’s just a few percent off some orders.

Still, double cashback is double your cashback, and we hope Microsoft will continue this program in the future or extend it from its existence.

Pricegrabber Listing Discount Percentages

Pricegrabber users doing searches on items with multiple sellers are now greeted by a colorful badge detailing which merchant is selling it for the cheapest, and the discount they’re getting from the highest seller of the product.

Since one of the main reasons a consumer goes on a comparison shopping engine is to find the lowest price on a product, it certainly is useful not only for consumers but for the merchant who is selling that particular product the cheapest as well. By being highlighted as having the lowest price, a consumer may be more likely drawn to that particular merchant, making the likelihood of a converted sale higher.

However Pricegrabber’s methodology of strictly comparing the lowest price listed to the highest of that product is somewhat questionable, as it is simply comparing one outlier to another–rather than comparing it to an average of all prices.

It also takes attention away from other components such as the user rating, and can mislead users into automatically thinking that the best purchase decision would be from the lowest priced merchant, even if they’ve had questionable reviews from consumers.

That said it’s still a very useful tool and another step in the right direction in improving a consumer’s overall shopping engine experience, which ultimately is what will lead to higher return rates and more sale conversions.

All Shopping.com Payments to Processed by Paypal

Merchants logging into their Shopping.com accounts are now greeted with the following message:

It’s a natural partnership since both companies are owned by parent eBay, but we have to wonder–if it’s not broken, why fix it?

For merchants who already have Paypal accounts linked to their business, this isn’t much of an issue for all they have to do is enter their email/password in order to link up the accounts.

But while Paypal is certainly the leader when it comes to online payment processing, not all businesses will necessarily have an account, creating an extra hurdle along the way or they risk having their products removed from Shopping.com.

There exists some merchants who may also have their own issues or qualms about using Paypal’s system from their personal experiences, making them slightly reluctant to link their Shopping.com accounts to Paypal or even in signing up for an account.

The main issue though is perhaps convenience related, and certainly of Shopping.com’s 5000+ merchants there will be more than a handful who may neglect this step.

So while Shopping.com has decided that the security and reliability advantages that Paypal has over their current system is worth the minor inconvenience to their merchants, freeing themselves up from their own resources, it’ll be surprising if certain issues don’t arise during this process.

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