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Julia Wilkinson AuctionBytes Blog
Covering auctions, collectibles and marketplace selling.

Julia Wilkinson is Editor of the AuctionBytes Blog and is author of the "eBay Price Guide," "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks," "My Life at AOL" and numerous ebooks about selling online. You can also find her writing on Yard Salers.
Fri June 4 2010 14:32:01

Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption

 By: Ina Steiner
Sponsored Link
One year after renaming its Live Cashback program to Bing Cashback, Microsoft said it would retire the program at the end of July because of low adoption by consumers. The program was an incentive for consumers to use Microsoft's Bing shopping engine - Bing Cashback had offers from over thousand merchant partners, who saw "great ROI," according to Microsoft. But, it said in an announcement on Friday, "after a couple of years of trying, we did not see the broad adoption that we had hoped for."

Online retailers liked the Bing Cashback program because it allowed them to drive traffic from Bing to their websites. Mercent had reported the program was one of its merchants' top four drivers of transaction volume in 2010.

eBay sellers protested when they noticed the company had suspended its participation in the program briefly in May, believing the program drove traffic to the marketplace.

Microsoft hinted at new Bing features for retailers coming later this year. "Shopping remains one of the most important tasks people engage in while using search, and we remain committed to delivering great shopping experiences for you that help you make better shopping decisions, get great deals, and save time and money along the way. For merchants and advertisers, we have some ideas for making it easy to get a broader array of products and offers into Bing, and we'll share some details on this later this summer."

Microsoft said the last day consumers can earn cashback will be July 30, 2010. Consumers will have a year to redeem earned cashback, and Microsoft will provide 12 months of customer support.
Comments (8) | Permalink
Readers Comments

Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: Troglodyte
       
Fri Jun 4 19:19:29 2010
This is a perfect example of ebay's amatuerish, fifth rate marketing department.

In stead of heavily promoting the Bing cash back program, ebay spent their resources on worthless, counterprodutive marketing like putting my competitors items on pages I paid for, Ad Commerce, and links that took potential buyers off site.

Bing cashback could have been a bonanza for all had it been aggressively promoted.

It would have significantly benefitted ebay, sellers, and buyers. But NOOOOOOOO, it was just so much easier for ebay's brain dead marketing whizzes to put photos and links in nearly every square inch of space that to actually develop an effective program promoting Bing cashback.

This should teach MS and any other third party contemplating a "partnership" with ebay to understand they'll be dealing with young, inexperienced, and overeducated junior executive who reached their highest level of competence somewhere between the 11th and 12th grades.
Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: eBuyer Feedback This user has validated their user name.
       Web Site
Fri Jun 4 21:21:50 2010
Good for Microsoft for finally figuring this out.  If you have to pay people to use your product maybe it isn't worth using?  Or maybe you should spend that money actually improving what you have instead.
Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: Loops
       
Sat Jun 5 12:19:33 2010
Ebay is not fazed. They pulled the plug once too, remember?

Ebays marketing consists of driving as much traffic to a few top sellers who are all ready getting top secret pricing. Makes you wonder if somebody is getting a kickback.

The little sellers stare from the mountain top as San Jose continues to burn. All one needs to do is look at Apple vs. Microsoft to understand what vision, culture and good management can do to turn a company around. Apple was just about out of business before Jobs turned it around and Microsoft has no answer. Ebay is no Apple.  
Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: Loops
       
Sat Jun 5 12:28:26 2010
Didn't Ebay Donahoe just say there is room for two or three? Didn't he just put out a press release and state how #2 is ok?

Where I come from, that would get you fired. No CEO strives to be #2. That statement is conceding. Why would anybody want somebody running their business that thinks #2 is OK.

Do a quick search on Google with this keyword phrase "Steve Jobs 7 secrets" and you will see what a good management team and company philosophy can do for a company.

Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: Shanna
       Web Site
Mon Jun 7 09:12:56 2010
Nothing to worry about, there are other cash back sites like FatWallet, Ebates, ShopAtHome and my favorite AAfter Search
Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: Carter
       Web Site
Thu Jan 27 01:24:14 2011
Frankly, I'm glad that Microsoft realized that this type of promotion is a waste of time. Especially if it isn't widely promoted. I hadn't even heard about it until now, about half a year after it was canceled.
Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: Carter
       Web Site
Thu Jan 27 01:26:50 2011
Microsoft was smart for realizing that this type of incentive doesn't work. People who are looking for deals have already found better ones, and people who aren't, just don't care all that much.
Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption   Microsoft Retires Bing Cashback Program Citing Low Adoption
by: Bytesland
       Web Site
Tue May 17 09:55:18 2011
well, I can't but agree with the previous comment. that really didn't work. but everyone has the right to make a mistake, especially Microsoft.


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