Cashback

The New Bing Shopping – A 30-Day Pre/Post Transition Comparison

 Posted by Tien - August 31, 2010 at 5:24 pm

Cashback Flashback

It’s been just over 30 days now since Microsoft shut down its Bing Cashback program which encouraged consumers to purchase items from participating merchants, who in turn would provide them with rebates of varying percentages anywhere from 2% to as high as 40%.

Fast forward to today and Bing Cashback has returned as Bing Shopping. This time they’ve come back as a free comparison shopping engine similar to Google Product Search. Currently they allow  all merchants who qualify to list their products without having to pay a commission to users.

For this post we have gathered data from our own merchants comparing their Bing Cashback performances 30-days prior to the Cashback program shutting down, and comparing them to how the post 30-days have fared for them.

The data we used was provided via our internal tracking systems, comparing the period of July 1 – July 30 to Aug 1 – Aug 30.

July 31st was skipped since that was the final day of Bing Cashback and served as a transition period. Here’s what we found:

When we summed up the traffic totals for all clients in this study, the aggregate numbers saw a drop off of 5.58%.

A drop off was to be expected for two main reasons:

• the new Bing Shopping campaign opened the doors for more merchants to sign up, so current merchants on Bing had to begin competing with more merchants with similar inventory than them, thus shrinking the size of the pie that a merchant previously had.
• without the benefit of receiving a percentage of their order back, consumers may have shied away from using Bing Shopping, since for them the incentive of using Bing Shopping as opposed to Google Product Search or any other CSE was non-existent–they’d have to go back to paying “full” price for goods either way.

The aggregate numbers don’t tell the entire story though–we found that while nearly 2/3s of the merchants we looked at lost traffic, the other 1/3 surprisingly gained traffic.

Breaking down each merchants traffic differences ranging from drops of 68% to gains of 60%. The median drop off was nearly identical to the overall at 5.54%.

Here’s a further breakdown with quartiles (1st quartile = 25th percentile, 3rd = 75th percentile):

So certainly things were skewed in the direction of a traffic drop off, while a good number of merchants have seen traffic gains with the new Bing.

Here is the part merchants should be most concerned with. Traffic spikes don’t amount to much if none of those convert into orders, and traffic drops are irrelevant if somehow the aggregate number of orders remained constant.

Whereas we saw traffic numbers increase for nearly 1/3 of our merchants, less than 20% saw a gain in total orders. Again, here’s our breakdown:

Overall, total sales fell 58.6% when combining all sales generated by Bing.

The story gets uglier here too, as conversion rates (orders / clicks) fell across the board for every merchant whose data we gathered:

Our best merchant saw a drop off of just 3.15%–but a typical merchant saw conversion rates decrease by over 50%.

We had one outlier of a merchant who saw a decent spike in revenue, but again we see a major drop off in total revenue, given the traffic decreases, and the lower conversion rates:

The numbers above were largely to be expected once Microsoft decided to pull the plug on its program.

The minor drops in traffic along with the huge drop offs in conversions and total revenue are the direct result of additional merchants diluting the inventory on Bing Shopping, along with the lower incentive levels in using Bing as compared to any of the dozens of other CSE’s out there.

Bing’s new Shopping platform is mainly a positive for merchants who were unable to get on there previously–much like a swank private nightclub finally opening its doors to the general public. Those used to being among elite crowds are now surrounded by anyone who wants to join.

Still, the positive news for merchants who’ve been on Bing all long is that Bing as a search portal is constantly growing, which should increase the number of users that go to its Shopping platform.

Also, merchants don’t have to worry about losing access to the exclusive club anymore due to a malfunctioning pixel (which was all too common) or due to a balance left unpaid.

And finally, as a free platform there’s no need to worry about fraudulent orders from users trying to game the system (also a common issue), or do much work at all other than regularly sending out a fresh data feed to Bing.

Almost exactly a year ago Microsoft’s  double cashback program (where Microsoft matched whatever % a merchant would give) was so popular that it had to shut it down prematurely, but merchants benefited greatly from it.

We doubt we’ll see much of the same craze again this year, instead the Bing Shopping program should be a more reliable and consistent source of traffic and revenue for its merchants, without any of the headaches that Bing Cashback provided.

Bing Cashback to Comeback as Free Bing Shopping

 Posted by Tien - July 20, 2010 at 9:59 am

After announcing the end of its Bing Cashback platform in June, Microsoft has announced the resurrection of their comparison shopping engine via a free Bing Shopping program, similar to Google’s Shopping/Product Search.

It was an expected move from Microsoft, which generated a bit of buzz around the internet, particularly among customers out looking for a deal.

It also was accompanied by headaches with merchants not being able to get on due to delays among Microsoft’s Bing program, as they were constantly being backloaded with requests to be on there.

For merchants currently on Bing Cashback, Microsoft says there’s not much further action needed to participate in the new Free Bing program:

Q. How do I get started?
A. It is easy to onboard your products into the Bing Shopping program. If you are an existing Bing cashback Shopping advertiser, all you need to do is keep sending us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010 and it will automatically go into the new Bing Shopping program for free, subject to the new Bing Shopping program Terms of Use.

Q. Will my existing Bing cashback Shopping data feeds automatically transition to the free Bing Shopping data feed on July 31, 2010?
A. Yes, if you continue to send your data feed to us on July 31, 2010 and thereafter.

So there we have it–nothing further needs to be done at this point for merchants currently on there.

It’ll be quite interesting to see what ever loss of traffic a merchant may experience from consumers not receiving any cashback–to the profit gains a merchant will receive, for the same reason.

However, Microsoft does leave the door open for a CPC program being in their future:

Q. What is the cost to send my product catalog through the Bing Shopping program?
A. At this time we are offering you the opportunity to send your product catalog to Bing Shopping for free. In the future, if we charge for use of the Bing Shopping program or change the requirements to use that are free of charge, we will provide notice pursuant to the Bing Shopping program Terms of Use

Complete information on the new Bing Shopping program can be found here.

Sample Data Feeds and Feed Specifications for Comparison Shopping Engines

 Posted by Nii Ahene - October 7, 2009 at 10:21 am

Below you’ll find both sample data feeds and links to data feed specifications for the major shopping engines (As of 10/3/2009). It’s highly recommended that you read over the latest specification at the engine resource site before deploying the feeds for your campaigns.
-Nii

Google Base/Google Product Search
- Sample Data Feed for Google Base/Google Product Search
- Google Base/Google Product Search Data Feed Specifications Page

Shopzilla
- Sample Data Feed for Shopzilla
- Shopzilla Data feed Specifications Page

Pricegrabber
- Sample Data Feed for Pricegrabber
- Pricegrabber Data feed Specifications Page

Nextag
- Sample Data Feed for Nextag
- Nextag Data feed Specifications Page

Shopping.com
- Sample Data File for Shopping.com – Varies By Category, see Specification Page
- Shopping.com Data Feed Specifications Page

Bing Shopping
- Sample Data Feed for Bing Cashback
- Bing Cashback Data Feed Spcifications Page

Yahoo Shopping
- Sample Data Feed for Yahoo Shopping
- Yahoo Shopping Data Feed Specification Page (Must be a Yahoo Shopping Merchant to View)

Become
- Sample Data Feed for Become.com
- Become Data feed Specifications Page

Smarter.com
- Sample Data Feed for Smarter
- Smarter Data feed Specifications Page

Pronto
- Sample Data Feed for Pronto
- Pronto Data Feed Specifications Page

Amazon Product Ads
- Sample Data Feed for Amazon Product Ads
- Amazon Product Ads Data Feed Specifications Page (Need to have an Amazon Product Ads account to View)

Bing’s Double Cashback for Clunkers Prematurely Ends

 Posted by Tien Nguyen - August 28, 2009 at 8:37 am

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

 Posted by Tien Nguyen - August 25, 2009 at 3:53 pm

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.

Microsoft’s Bing Cashback Helps Users Get Discount off Apple’s iPhone

 Posted by Tien Nguyen - June 19, 2009 at 2:53 pm

It isn’t too often that you see the words “Microsoft”, “Apple”, and “help” bundled together in the same sentence–without the words “push off a boat” in it at least–but for the bargain hunters of the world it’s been a known thing that one of Live Bing Cashback’s biggest allure is the discount that they provide on the iPhone.

While most merchants and retailers listed on Cashback generally offer a 5-10% “discount” on their products, AT&T began offering the iPhone at a 35% discount rate compared to their online or in-store prices back late last year via Live Cashback. That promotion helped put Cashback on the map to other users looking for discount deals, albeit rarely as much as 35%.

A new deal that’s surfaced in the past few days then is Apple’s new iPhone, labeled the 3G S, will also be available with a 35% discount via Microsoft.

The deal is red-hot for bargain hunters and Apple fans , alikeand makes plenty of sense for Microsoft to promote since they don’t have a physical phone that directly competes with the iPhone.

Microsoft is the maker of Windows Mobile which is used in many smartphones out there, but based on their marketing budgets, their new search engine Bing, along with their shopping platform is where they would like to see the most growth.

Imagine that then, Apple and Microsoft teaming up, though very indirectly, to help take down Google. It’s quite the world we live in now.

For full details of how to get your 35% cashback, head on over to Fat Wallet.

“Bing Cashback” is the New “Live Cashback”

 Posted by Tien Nguyen - May 31, 2009 at 11:51 pm

Microsoft has just officially launched its new search engine, Bing, which some facetiously say stands for either “But It’s Not Google” or, as a reciprocal acronym, “Bing, It’s Not Google”.

Whatever it may or may not be shorthand for, Microsoft has officially thrown on its gloves and challenging Google at what it does best, search.

Whether or not users will begin to adapt to the new engine is something that only time will tell, so for now we’re going to focus on the shopping experience it provides to users.

First things first, directly on the Bing homepage is a link for Shopping, which didn’t exist before when it was called Live (and currently exists on Google).

Clicking on the tab takes a user, appropriately enough, to the Bing Shopping page, where as we’ve discussed previously, highlights Cashback toward the top.

But now by virtue of the shopping page receiving exposure via the home page should certainly increase the amount of users who actually enter the shopping page and use it as a platform the way they’re using Google Product Search.

We’ve certainly noticed a steady increase in our merchants revenue via the Cashback platform as of late–though it’s hard to tell if it’s directly because of this change.

As with before as well, a search that Microsoft recognizes as a popular product search will be highlighted with popular brands, and price ranges that a user can click through (similar to Google’s “one box” feature):

We will continue to monitor if user adoption of Cashback continues to increase as users begin to adopt Bing either plain curiosity, or because their shopping section is now directly on the home page–or simply by the natural increase of online retail in general.

We here at CPC Strategy though certainly approve of any methods that make the online shopping experience that much easier.

Smack Shopping gets Smacked from Microsoft

 Posted by Tien Nguyen - April 21, 2009 at 3:35 pm

Microsoft Giving Cashback Traction

 Posted by Tien Nguyen - February 19, 2009 at 3:37 pm