TRAACKR

I was reading last night about the launch of Microsoft’s live search cashback, described in Sillicon Valley Insider as a “disruptive development”. Intrigued, I signed up this morning to try it. Painless process except that I had to remember my Hotmail password – not easy as I usually only use this account for spam…

After browsing and searching for products for 15mn, I’m still struggling to understand the value proposition. What’s the difference with Google Checkout that will celebrate its 2-year anniversary in 2 weeks?

How is the “cashback” of any interest to buyers? I know that the font is red and all to emphasize it’s important (see screenshot below), but really, who is going to look at anything else than the bottom line price of what they buy??? Ask airlines, they have been struggling with this for some time now…

Online shopping aggregators have made tremendous strives towards price transparency that has become the norm for online buying, so what’s the point of cashback? People will always look at the bottom line (price + tax if applicable – discounts/cashback + delivery) when they make decisions on a purchase.

If the idea is to be able to show exclusive deals for Live Search with cashback in the form of a discount, it only works as long as competing online retailers don’t align their prices, which they will undoubtedly do.

The only disruption I have found so far with Live Search Cashback is in the logic. What am I missing?