Bing Cashback to Comeback as Free Bing Shopping

Posted by Tien Nguyen on July 20, 2010 in Uncategorized

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.

About the AuthorTien Nguyen is a co-founder of CPC Strategy and deals with data feeds in his waking hours and often in his sleep. He spends his free time with Rubik's cubes while rooting for the underachieving Raiders and UCLA sports teams where he graduated with a mathematics/economics degree. See all posts by this author here.