Microsoft Shopping, Live Search Cashback, JellyFish, Live Search Updates and Ciao.com Purchase Too

Microsoft is doing its best to gain market share in the area of comparison shopping engines and online shopping.  I personally think they are doing a great job.  The marketplace will see some great benefits for both the consumer and the online e-commerce merchant in months ahead; I think the marketplace is rooting for Microsoft.  Do we really want our whole online world to be Google?

In the past 12 months Microsoft has:

1. acquired Jellyfish.com in 2007, a unique online comparison shopping portal that combines "smack daddy" daily specials with cash back options that the e-commerce merchant passes on to the shopper
2. utilized the "cashback mechanism" of JellyFish.com for their larger Microsoft shopping portal
3. Microsoft now has two shopping engines; MSN Shopping and Live Search Cashback.  Live Search Cashback offers up to 40% cash back to consumers on any purchase -- an amazing and bold move and one that really benefits the consumers and the online e-commerce merchant; Microsoft pays 100% of the cash back refund to consumers on behalf of the merchant
4. bought Ciao.com, one of the most dominant comparison shopping engines in all of Europe, with a new subsidiary in the USA (www.Ciao.com), to solidify market share and product shopping awareness globally.

Commenting on MSN Shopping, Mark Deruyter, program manager lead at Microsoft Corp.’s MSN Shopping, stated: “We have great content on MSN Shopping and we wanted users to be more engaged and to reward them.” A new animated web page will feature changeable “storefronts” that can be adapted to fit seasonal shopping and specific categories, such as jewelry, Deruyter told conference attendees.

The home page will include a spinning wheel with a range of credit points enabling frequent shopper program members to “spin to win” up to 50 credits each day. Credits can be redeemed for discounts. “We’re trying to get the customer to come back,” Deruyter said.

Commenting on Live Search Cashback, Jennifer Stark, MSN Product Specialist, added: “Consumers and Advertisers are getting more of an economic value from Live Search Cashback.  It is a win-win situation for everyone.”

I am sure Microsoft has big plans ahead to take Google head on in search and by fortifying online shopping, which also serves up many ad campaigns, this just may be their first major, successful move -- "knight takes pawn D5" - Google, your move.

For all e-commerce merchants reading this please note that you should definately work with Microsoft's: Live Search Cashback, MSN Shopping, and Live Search as listing your products with them is FREE.

So, any sales leads you get are also FREE.  So why not list your products with them and get some possible sales leads and definately get some good SEO for your Webstore? 

Need to reach them?  Contact MerchantAdvantage and we can get you there.

-- Chip Arndt

PS If you want to work with all of Microsoft's comparison shopping engines quickly, cost-effectively, and seamlessly, including Ciao.com in the USA or Europe, check out MerchantAdvantage. For only $145 a month, and no other fees, MerchantAdvantage can list, optimize, and analyze your product catalog feeds to any and all Microsoft related shopping sites and 150+ other comparison shopping engines.  Where else can you market to possibly over 20 million unique visitors per month for $145 a month?  Check us out.

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