Bing cashback 101

It’s been just over a year since we introduced cashback and a lot has happened in that time. We’ve added offers, merchants, and even changed our name to Bing cashback (although some suggested “Bing Bling”). With all the activity this year, we thought it was a good time to revisit how Bing cashback works and provide an update on how the program is going.

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Bing cashback is easy as 1, 2, 3: Search, Shop and Save. Within Bing’s product search results or sponsored listings, click on any product or ad with the Bing cashback gleam, shown here, purchase the product through the merchant’s site, and get cashback. In most cases, you will have to wait 60 days to get your cashback, but after that period, you can get your cashback via PayPal, direct deposit to your bank account or via check mailed to you.

Bing cashback always has hot deals on popular products such as laptops and electronics prominently displayed on the homepage, and we’re also regularly Tweeting out great deals to our followers of @bingcashback. Come follow us to make sure you don’t miss a deal!

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For those loyal shoppers keeping track of how we’ve been doing, here’s an overview of the key metrics we use to measure success of the program.

1. Number of Offers: We now have more than 17 million offers, up from 10 million at launch on Bing cashback. More selection is great news for shoppers.

2. Advertiser ROI: Merchants participating in the program are loving it. We have two specific examples to share with you. First, since joining the program, eBay has seen a 10x increase in clicks to its site, a 7x increase in sales and 4x return when compared to its previous year’s performance with us. TigerDirect noticed its sales and order volumes nearly double, and both its conversion rates and order sizes increase significantly since joining the program. Thanks to a better ROI, advertisers have been able to increase their advertising spend with Bing and we, in turn, have passed more value to our customers through rebates. If you’re an advertiser and want to join the Bing cashback program, click here for more information.

3. Percentage of shopping queries: According to data from comScore, our numbers of absolute shopping queries in the past year are up by 57 percent in the U.S. In the overall search space, shopping queries were up only 42 percent, meaning we outperformed the U.S. market on shopping query growth. From a marketshare perspective in shopping queries, we’ve also grown year-over-year from 17.6 percent marketshare in April 08 to 19.4 percent at the end of April 2009.

Beyond these numbers, we have also seen some great anecdotal feedback from our loyal cashback shoppers. Some of these stories made us laugh, and many of them just warmed our hearts like this one from Jenny from our customer service team.

image “Using cashback I bought my daughters’ first Halloween costume.. Winnie the Pooh bumblebee.. which she would only wear if she was holding a toothbrush in her hand and got most annoyed when we took it away.” (Here’s a picture of her in all her Halloween glory.)

 

 

Now it’s your turn. We want to hear about your experiences with cashback and what great products you have recently purchased. Fan us on Facebook and share your favorite cashback purchases.

As we move into year two of cashback, we are committed to Bing cashback as a key part of the overall Bing experience, and we will continue to work with merchants to offer great deals to keep you shoppers coming back for more. Thank you for helping us get off to a great start.

Raju Malhotra, Director of Product Management, Bing