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

Good morning comparison shopping engine Gurus!

While doing some research on what the comparison shopping engine Bing Cashback is going to evolve into, I came across an interesting post on ComparisonEngines.com stating that the comparison shopping engine plans to go with a cost free advertising model engine (think Google Product Search).  According to the blog’s author, he met with reps from Bing and confirmed this last week.  The author also states that this change will happen after this July 30th end of the Cashback program. You can read the full post here:

http://comparisonengines.com/2010/06/08/confirmed-bing-shopping-will-be-free/

If this is information is correct, merchants will finally be given a strong second option to drive shoppers to their site for free through a comparison shopping engine. While there are other “free” comparison shopping engines out there, none seem to be able to rival the traffic and conversions that Bing Cashback was able to generate (excluding Google Product Search of course). If you are an advertiser on a minimal budget, I don’t have to tell you how great this change would be for you. The elimination of the “Cashback” side of the engine will also lift the barrier that was preventing advertisers with MAP pricing from submitting to the engine.

No information has been released directly from Bing to confirm the change. I will continue to monitor the evolution of this comparison shopping engine closely and keep you up to date!

CSE.Manager@gmail.com

On Friday, June 4th 2010 an e-mail went out to current Bing Cashback merchants letting them know that on July 30th 2010 the Cashback program will be ending. This marks the end of the best Cost Per Acquisition comparison shopping engine on the internet which graced us with its presence for a span of two years (previously dubbed Live Search Cashback.)

Here is the e-mail in its entirety:

Dear Merchant,

We are writing to let you know that Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Bing cashback program. After 9:00 P.M. PST on July 30, 2010, we will no longer offer this program on the Bing search results or Bing Shopping pages. This will also be the last day consumers will be able to buy through the Bing cashback program.

What this means for you
As we continue to evolve both the consumer and advertiser experiences for Bing, we will pursue different avenues in order to offer great shopping experiences to consumers and great advertising experiences for our advertisers. We’ve prepared some frequently asked questions about the program closure. Please keep these key points in mind in the coming months:

This is a great time to spend your cashback budget to drive mid-summer sales. You can increase sales payout rates to the maximum outlined in your merchant agreement to help use up the funds in your piggybank before July 30, 2010. Microsoft will continue to contribute to your piggybank until that date.

After July 30, Bing Shopping will continue to operate as it does today, but without the presence of cashback. We’re continually improving the Bing Shopping experience to help shoppers discover products, compare offers, and buy seamlessly online. In addition to current features like consumer reviews and ratings and Visual Search, we’ll also offer a more streamlined Bing Shopping experience and better shopping integration with Bing.com.

We are developing a new shopping program that will offer greater flexibility than you experienced with cashback. You’ll be able to provide a broader set of products in Bing Shopping searches, with little or no extra work. The program is scheduled to begin later in 2010, and we’ll provide more details soon.

What this means for your customers
Bing cashback consumers can continue to shop and earn cashback through 9:00 P.M. PST on July 30. They can redeem all of their acquired cashback earnings consistent with the cashback terms and conditions, as well as access the Bing cashback customer support system through July 30, 2011—a full 12 months after the program ends. Consumers can learn more about the discontinuation of cashback on the Bing web page.

Thank you
We would like to thank the more than 1200 cashback advertisers who joined us for this two-year journey. With over 82 million Bing searchers,* we are still strongly committed to being the destination for all commerce-related searches. Please stay tuned for more online shopping innovations from Microsoft, and again, check out the frequently asked questions to learn more about these changes.

Sincerely,

Microsoft Advertising Bing cashback Team

This is truly sad news for us here in the comparison shopping engine management world!

To help answer some questions about Bing Cashback ending, Microsoft has setup a FAQ page for question here:

http://advertising.microsoft.com/advertising/bing-cashback

There is also a download-able PDF FAQ Document here:

http://advertising.microsoft.com/wwdocs/user/en-us/foradvertisers/Microsoft%20Discontinues%20Bing%20cashback%20External%20FAQs.pdf

I took the liberty of quoting some of the more important FAQs that I read:

Q. Should I continue to use the Merchant Center to manage my account?
A. Yes. Existing merchants should continue to use the Merchant Center to manage their account exactly as they do today until the Merchant Center is retired on September 29, 2010.

Q. Do I still need to transition my Merchant Center account into the adCenter platform?
A. No. You will no longer need to perform any steps to migrate your existing cashback account in Merchant
Center to the adCenter platform since we plan to discontinue Bing cashback on July 30, 2010.

Q. Should I stop sending my cashback feed?
A. No, you should leave your data feed on as we want to continue to have your catalogs available in Bing. We are developing a new shopping program for advertisers. This program is currently scheduled to begin later this calendar year and it will offer greater data feed flexibility than what is currently available through the existing cashback Shopping program. This will enable advertisers to provide a broader set of products for inclusion in Bing Shopping searches, and to do so with little-to-no extra work required. More details will be available on this new advertising opportunity soon. We will send you the terms and conditions governing the new program before it begins. More information will be forthcoming shortly.

Q. What changes do I need to make to my current cashback implementation before or after July 30, 2010?
A. You do not need to make any changes prior to July 31, 2010. As of July 31, 2010, we will begin to operate Bing Shopping as a product advertising platform with greater data feed flexibility than what is now available. Please continue to send your data feed to Microsoft as you do today. We will send you the terms and conditions for the new program before it begins. More information will be forthcoming shortly.

Q. I am a cashback shopping merchant, and I have a balance on my funds. How do I request a refund?
A. After September 29, 2010, we will automatically be processing refunds for cashback Shopping advertisers with a positive balance. This process may take up to 90 days after September 29, 2010. Please validate your contact information in Merchant Center to ensure accurate processing of your refund. If you wish to deactivate your account prior to July 30, 2010 and receive a refund, contact cshbkhlp@microsoft.com. Please allow up to 90 days to receive your check.

So based on all of the information that is currently available:

I will continue to monitor the situation closely and post with any updates so stay tuned!

As always if you have any questions or need some help you can e-mail me at CSE.Manager@gmail.com