MSN Cashback Jellyfish Bing Thing

So it’s been a while since my last post. I have been figuring out what to do with my site layout while I investigate new hosting, upgrading to a newer Wordpress version, and redesigning the site in general. The problem with doing a lot of things at once, or finding how to undertake these things, is that a small block can turn into a major damn in the river. So, perhaps the best way to unblock the river is to begin with a trickle of thought -

So what is happening with MSN Shopping, um, I mean JellyFish, I mean Cashback, no…I actually mean Bing Cashback?

Of coarse some people still use the Jellyfish reference, but the comparison engine has now transitioned to Bing Cashback. Starting in May, Microsoft began to heavily transition over to their new comparison model by focusing their network on Cashback. This has created a natural conflict with MSN Shopping, which was Microsoft’s sole comparison engine before. The migration in May meant that MSN Shopping CPC listings and Cashback commission based listings were now merged (or conflicting depending on your perspective).

Since the official merger, Cashback merchant’s traffic has increased noticeably as Microsoft begins to push more consumers to the Cashback model. However, the converse reaction on a merchant’s MSN Shopping channel has been a steady decline. In the case where a merchant had both channels active, the commission based of Cashback sourced listings trumped and replaced the CPC or MSN Shopping based listings. This has been very telling in terms of direction for Microsoft. Recently the direction became clearer as Microsoft has now requested that if a merchant has both an MSN Shopping feed and a Cashback feed, that the MSN feed be discontinued. So, the turnover is almost finalized.

Of interest is the Ciao.com acquisition which was also made by Microsoft. In early July, Ciao announced that it was officially discontinuing traffic and that merchants should shut down sending products. The questi0n is why? Has Microsoft purchased and shutdown Ciao for their European based operations? Or is it that Microsoft eventually sees Ciao taking the place of MSN Shopping as a CPC destination?

My guess is that Ciao is valuable based on their international focus and that US based merchants should not expect to see much from Ciao in the future. After-all, Microsoft already had a PPC based channel in MSN Shopping, and we saw what happened there. However, what I have heard is that there is a future for CPC based shopping in Microsoft’s future. For now, merchants should not worry at all about MSN Shopping as this slowly fades away. If not on Cashback already, every merchant should be making the effort to gear up efforts now and get on here. Simply, why as a merchant, would you not want a commission based channel with reasonably easy integration, and where the commission is flexible starting at a low 3%? It’s virtually a no-brainer. Now, if only there were some easier ways to optimize for Cashback….

July 28th, 2009