Seattle — Microsoft was grossly mocked at when it launched Live Search Cashback program back in May, a program that offers incentives to Web surfers who click and buy products from participating Microsoft vendor partners through the Live Search site, the company said Thursday. “Surely, Money has the power to perform wonders!”
On Thursday, Microsoft touted that its Live Search Cashback initiative has seen a 30 percent jump in the number of products listed on the Web site, which is now drawing 4.5 million unique users and 68 million search queries per month.
The company is indicating to a comScore study it commissioned that reports that, among key retail categories in the second quarter, Microsoft had nearly 12% of the commercial transactions on websites in the U.S. and about 13% of total U.S. online spending.
Microsoft is attempting to build loyalty among customers and advertisers. In fact, Microsoft said that the 20 of the top 50 online retailers in the U.S., including Gap and Saks Fifth Avenue, and 140 of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 are now attracted to the Live Search Cashback program. eBay has increased its search marketing spend with Microsoft threefold, Microsoft said.
Brad Goldberg, general manager of Microsoft Live Search was more than pleased to report the program’s 30% increase in product offerings.
“We have seen an average of 4.5 million unique users per month visiting Cashback who have performed over 68 million commercial queries. We believe this early account speaks to the differentiated and unique value proposition of Microsoft Live Search Cashback for both consumers and advertisers, especially in these tough economic times.”
According to Microsoft, users are flocking in greater numbers than is typical on other search engines, driving up its share of ad dollars — although not its share of the search market, which is about 10%.
Under the Cashback program, which started in May, the company rewards shoppers with reimbursements from a few cents to $20 or more on items they find using its search engine, Live Search.
When Microsoft started Cashback, the company asserted that it would quantify its success by the number of items advertised in the system, growth in its share of searches that lead to transactions online, and how happy merchants are with returns on their investment in Cashback ads.
In an interview, Frederick Savoye, a senior director of product management for Live Search, said the number of items advertised on Cashback has grown to 13 million, from 10 million at launch. Companies like eBay Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. say the ads they place on the Cashback site perform better than other paid search advertisements online.
Live Search Cashback was commenced with associates such as eBay, Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears and Zappos.com. Additional big guns like AT&T, Drugstore.com, FTD, Gap properties (including Banana Republic and Old Navy), Kmart, RedEnvelope and Saks Fifth Avenue have also climbed on board.
Live Search Cashback is developed from the technology and partnerships Microsoft picked up in its October 2007 acquisition of comparison-shopping Web site Jellyfish. In the program, merchants pay Microsoft and Microsoft sends them a rebate via check, bank deposit or PayPal.
Early this week, Microsoft has been completely occupied on the search front. On Monday, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems announced a deal to include the MSN Toolbar — which includes a Live Search button — as an option in the download for the Java Runtime Environment.
And the ongoing reports appearing in The Wall Street Journal, reported that Microsoft and Verizon Wireless were close to finalizing a mobile search deal worth roughly $1 billion that would make Microsoft the default search provider on Verizon Wireless phones.
Microsoft declined to say the amount of funds it plans to spend on the rebate program.
“We still have works to do, but we are very, very focused here,” Savoye said.