On Tuesday July 20th 2010 Bing Cashback e-mailed its clients to let them know that the Cashback program was indeed ending on July 30th 2010 and that the comparison shopping engine will be switching to a COST FREE model and will be called simple Bing Shopping! More information can be viewed on the Bing Shopping page

I am sure I do not need to sit here and tell you how awesome this change will be. Finally another proficient free comparison shopping engine! Merchant’s will now have two strong free marketing channels for their products.

In a time where making every dollar count is more vital than it has ever been, finally some good news!

Here is a copy of the email that went out to merchants:

Dear Merchant,

As we recently announced, the Bing cashback program is retiring on July 30, 2010. This email serves as notice that your cashback merchant agreement for Bing cashback Search and/or Bing cashback Shopping terminates July 30, 2010, at midnight Eastern Time.

We want to introduce you to our new, free Bing Shopping program, but first we’d like to review the steps you should take to prepare for the discontinuation of Bing cashback.

Take action by the end of July

To avoid customer confusion, you should remove references to the cashback program from your ad copy and all pages of your website by end of day July 30. Remember to:

• Remove the cashback logo and other cashback graphics or references from all pages of your website.
• Remove links to cashback terms and conditions.
• Unwrap your cashback URLs from your ads in adCenter.
• Remove cashback from your ad copy from your ads in adCenter.

You should also remove the cashback pixel-tracking code from your website on July 31. Doing so before July 31 might cause issues for your customers. For merchants who submit a batch file, the transmission of batch-file transactions should stop by August 3, 2010 and the last submission should contain transactions with a purchase date of no later than July 30th. You will still be able to submit returns or cancelations via a batch feed or through the Merchant Center through end of day September 29, 2010.

New Bing Shopping program

As the cashback program retires, we are happy to invite you to be a part of a select group of merchants who can list their product catalogs on Bing for free starting on July 31, 2010*. This program lets you offer a broader set of products with little to no extra work required!

To get started, all you have to do is continue to send us your Bing cashback Shopping data feed after July 30, 2010. Starting July 31, if you continue to send your cashback feed to us it will be governed by the Bing Merchant Data Feed Terms of Use. For broader coverage on Bing, we encourage you to include in your feed all of your eligible products consistent with our Bing Merchant Data Feed Terms of Use.

How to learn more

For more information, visit the Bing Shopping page or contact the Bing Shopping team at freeshop@microsoft.com. In addition to our new free Bing Shopping program, we’re continually improving the Bing Shopping experience to help shoppers discover products and compare offers. You can sign in to our Merchant Center to update your contact information and ensure that you continue to get the latest news about Bing Shopping.

If you need help preparing your account for the discontinuation of Bing cashback, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page or contact cashback help at cshbkhlp@microsoft.com.

Thank you for your past participation in Bing cashback. We look forward to helping you succeed with the Bing Shopping program.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft Advertising Bing cashback team

CSE.Manager@gmail.com