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Microsoft launched a limited time promotion today called Back-to-School Deal Days for Live Search cashback. The promotion lets customers save big (and in some cases double the rewards) from hundreds of participating online retailers.

The back-to-school season is the second largest retail season of the year. That bodes well for Microsoft's share of searches as they continue to compete with Yahoo for (a distant) second place.

Live Search cashback offers ad-funded cash rebates to customers using the service. Live Search also offers price comparisons, making side-by-side price shopping quicker and easier.

A recent survey from Deloitte found that during this back-to-school shopping season, 71 percent of households plan on spending less on back-to-school items than they have in previous years. With consumers feeling financial strain from higher gas and food prices, Live Search cashback is offering back-to-school shoppers extra savings to stretch their dollars further.

Back-to-school savings start today and will run for a limited time during the month of August.

How It Works: Online shoppers can search, shop and get cashback rebates from hundreds of participating online stores through the Microsoft Live Search cashback program, which launched in May. Current retailers include Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears, Foot Locker and Zappos.com, among many others. This month, the cashback return is even higher with Deal Days.

Here are a few examples of the bargains:

Rebate of 36 percent on Jordan Men’s AJF 12 basketball shoes from Foot Locker
Rebate of 18 percent on Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet PCs from Zappos.com
Rebate of 30 percent on The North Face Doubletrack backpacks from eBags

Consumers can save money each time they use Live Search cashback. For every qualifying purchase, the shopper will be sent an e-mail message confirming the Live Search cashback savings. Consumers’ cash can be claimed when their Live Search cashback balance hits at least $5, 60 days after the purchase. Microsoft will provide the rebate one of three ways: via PayPal, check or direct deposit into a bank account.

Local search engine Local.com has announced the addition of ratings and reviews to their offering. Users can create a free account and give their opinion on businesses listed on the site. Ratings will use a 5 star system and users will be allowed to make comments to accompany their ratings.

“According to Jupiter Research, 77 percent of online shoppers use ratings and reviews when making a purchase,” said Kim LaFleur, Local.com vice president, product management. “We are pleased to launch our own ratings and reviews engine to allow consumers visiting Local.com to both add and access important information on local businesses throughout the U.S., enabling them to make more informed purchasing decisions. In addition, this allows our business customers to more proactively manage their own reputations and understand their customers’ opinions (both good and bad) of their own products and services.”

The news comes at a time when data is showing that searchers are looking for answers. Additionally, search engines are beginning to move toward more comprehensive search results.

A majority of online shoppers (82%), report being very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the customer support available during their online holiday shopping experience this year, according to Nielsen Online.

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Last month Nielsen Online released the results of survey suggesting that online shoppers prefer the convenience of online shopping as their main reason for participating. This month, another survey says that price is the most important factor.

Low prices was their fifth concern, behind ease of finding the items they sought, with just 46 percent naming low prices as their primary reason for shopping online. Just 24 percent cited low shipping costs.

Nielson Online’s Ken Cassar suggested consumer preferences for convenience spiked during the holiday season, as shoppers sought to avoid crowds at brick-and-mortar locations.

These findings are in sharp contrast to market research firm Synovate of Chicago for Guidance, who says America’s uncertain economy is driving an increase in bargain hunting.

Guidance’s poll suggests the opposite of Nielsen’s, as 67 percent chose price as their first or second most important factor in online shopping (43% 1st, and 24% 2nd), and 59 percent (18% and 41%) of respondents chose free shipping as their first or second choice.

By comparison, only small percentages chose convenience factors like speed/efficiency of checkout (8%) or in-store pickup/returns (3.5%).

Also interesting about this survey is that those with higher incomes (above $75,000 annually) favored special promotions or coupons more often than those from lower income brackets.

So which is it? Price or convenience? I imagine we could hold our own poll and come up with a third set of numbers. But it may pay off if online retailers can focus on a combination of both to maximize sales.  

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Online shoppers researched product information 11 percent and 27 percent more on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday respectively than they did on Cyber Monday, according to research from WebCollage.

The average amount of time shoppers spent researching specific products online increased 16 percent when compared to the time they spent researching specific products in 2006.

"The increase in online product research emphasizes just how important it is for both manufacturers and retailers to provide comprehensive product and brand information to meet the demands of today’s web savvy consumers," said Jed Alpert, Vice President of Marketing for WebCollage.

"Customers are clearly spending more time on retail websites trying to learn everything they can about a product before they purchase it online or in a store."

Along with online shoppers researching specific products on Web sites, they are also visiting retailer’s "shop-by-brand" sections for guided advice on how to choose the right product within a specific brand. Close to 50 percent of holiday traffic went to brand stores on retail Web sites.

"Nearly half of our consumer research traffic goes to the brand store sections of retail websites versus specific products.  This means that manufacturers that do not have a comprehensive and complete brand store are missing out on an opportunity to influence a significant portion of their prospect base," Alpert added.

"Only by understanding retail website traffic patterns and integrating their complete brand story online can manufacturers truly leverage the power of their offline marketing that creates consumer interest in their specific brand."

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Want a snapshot of the day’s search marketing news? Here we’ve collected today’s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

• Google Android: Mobile Platform, No Gphone (Yet)
  Google today unveiled a new mobile operating system, user interface, and applications platform dubbed Android.
• IAC Splitting Into Five Separate Companies
  After years of touting the importance of “synergy” between its partner companies, IAC Chairman and CEO Barry Diller has gotten permission from the board of directors to split the business five ways.
• Your Visitors Appreciate Targeted Ads, Really
  Despite all the privacy concerns of late, online shoppers appreciate the benefits of personalized and targeted promotions.
• Google Outsources Product Uploads
  Google has announced its newly established Product Search Partners who can help people develop and submit feeds for their products.
• Yahoo To Kickstart College Students’ Careers
  Yahoo is launching a social networking service for college students to help them find careers.
• Microsoft’s Garry Wiseman Interviewed on Shopping Search
  Garry is the group program manager for the commerce search team in the Live Search group.
• SEW Experts: Content Advertising Explained
  David Szetela, founder of Clix Marketing, kicks off his new column that will explore the myriad problems with content advertising, and the ways advertisers can solve those problems.
• SEW Experts: Searches in Vegas, Stay in Vegas
  In so many ways, Las Vegas is the best-marketed city in the world. Given that sophistication, one would expect to find all the main casinos, restaurants, night clubs, and shows listed in paid search results.

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Despite all the privacy concerns of late, online shoppers appreciate the benefits of personalized and targeted promotions.

According to an Avenue A | Razorfish study, some 72% of online shoppers find personalized recommendations helpful. In the chart below, only 34% were concerned with privacy — and that means 66% don’t have these concerns when receiving recommendations.

We do live in a capitalist society, and see ads all day long. Also we are all shoppers, whether literally shopping or not at that moment. So it doesn’t surprise me that so many people appreciate promotions related to their interests or prior purchases.

Publishers and advertisers should gain comfort from these findings. While it would be good to ask these same questions about ads versus recommendations, I think it’s fair to say that targeted ads won’t be a problem for most people. They might really see them as useful instead.

This week, AOL said they will allow individuals to “opt out” of their ad targeting services, which are based on surfing patterns alone. If you extrapolate from this study, then very few people will actively opt out. We’ll wait and see.

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Expect to see plenty of free shipping offers this holiday season, the most common shipping promotion will be free shipping with conditions, according to the 2007 eHoliday study conducted by BizRate Research for Shop.org and Shopzilla.

Sixty percent of retailers will use free shipping upgrades, 53 percent will offer discounted shipping and 41 percent will offer free shipping without conditions to increase sales. Consumers like free shipping promotions and 61 percent of online shoppers said that free shipping without conditions is one of the promotions they would likely consider this holiday season.

"Free shipping offers drive online sales more than any other promotion, which is why they remain popular with retailers," said Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org.

"Unfortunately, free shipping is not free for retailers. Merchants can minimize the financial impact of these promotions by carefully analyzing the conditions required for their customers to receive free shipping."

Along with offering free shipping promotions, retailers will use a number of other marketing tactics to drive sales. Sixty-three percent of retailers will offer online-only sales this year, up from 59 percent two years ago. Thirty-five percent of companies will offer early shopper discounts, 37 percent repeat buyer discounts and 55 percent "refer a friend" promotions.

Customer’s main reasons for shopping online rather than in stores is the ability to shop at any time of day (58%), not wanting to deal with crowds (43%), and the convenience of shopping online (38%). Shoppers also said they like comparing prices online (36%) and that items are usually easier to find online than in stores (29%).

"As consumers become more comfortable with the web as a shopping resource and sales channel, they are naturally spending more of their holiday budget online," said Helen Malani, Shopzilla’s Chief Shopping Expert. "If consumers continue to have a satisfying experience online, the channel will continue to grow for many holiday seasons to come."

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Consumer product reviews are becoming more trusted according to a Deloitte Consumer Product Group study. Deloitte revealed that 62 percent of Internet users read product reviews written by fellow consumers.

Over eight in ten respondents in the Deloitte study who read consumer reviews said that they had impacted their buying intentions. They were either more determined to make a purchase or had second thoughts and made a different purchase.

Pat Conroy, vice chairman and US consumer products group leader at Deloitte Touche USA, said, "This increasing market transparency can adversely impact the margins, market share and brand equity of consumer products companies."

"Consumers are increasingly empowered, everyone has a voice, and information and opinions are instantly dispersed," he said. "Consumer product companies need to determine how best to capitalize on this new landscape."

In a separate study conducted by Deloitte in August with Sterling Commerce they found that 42 percent of U.S. online shoppers believed that having consumer reviews on Web sites increased trust in the sites.

Only 32 percent of U.S. ecommerce sites allow consumers to post reviews, according to an Internet Retailer Vovici study, the rest of the sites that do not allow consumer reviews are missing out on the opportunity to build site trust.

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Close to one- half of new vehicle buyers using the Internet in their shopping process go to an independent Web site when researching a new vehicle, while 46 percent visit a manufacturer site first, according to J.D. Power and Associate’s "2007 New Autoshopper.com" study.

In 2003, 62 percent of new-vehicle online shoppers went to independent sites first, compared to 36 percent who visited automaker sites.

"As automotive manufacturers have steadily pulled advertising dollars out of traditional media and redirected them toward digital media and search engine marketing, manufacturer Web site visitation has increased," said Steve Witten, executive director of marketing and media research at J.D. Power and Associates.

About 69 percent of new vehicle buyers who used the Internet in their shopping process used one or more types of user generated content. Close to two-thirds of those shoppers used consumer ratings and reviews.

"Consumer reviews are almost always available on the most heavily trafficked independent Web sites, which is likely contributing to high usage of consumer reviews among shoppers," said Witten.

"Lower usage of other consumer-generated content may be due to lower visibility. However, opportunities exist to invite vehicle shoppers and owners to share content on the Web, especially for independent sites, which might have fewer concerns about negative comments and reviews."

J.D. Power surveyed 29,272 new vehicle buyers from May to July 2007.

Online Car Shoppers

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