Yesterday news came out that Amazon.com was buying Woot, a well known deal-a-day website (a least well-known to techies).  Over the years Woot! has grown a very niche community and created a culture around their business.  The overwhelming concern is: Will Amazon change that?

Well… If you really want opinions, you can read all the commentary on the Mashable or TechCrunch posts…  Or you can just listen to what their Monkey has to say:

At what cost would such a community-oriented website “sellout”?  TechCrunch is now reporting that the sale was for $110 Million.

It just isn’t that simple…

One thing I couldn’t figure out was how Microsoft was offering such high cash back rates.  It didn’t seem sustainable…  In fact, I don’t think it was.  The extremely high cashback rates, which I imagine took quite a bit of their ability to generate profits (ROI), had to play a role in its closure…  And I’m not the only one thinking this.  Brian Smith at ComparisonEngines.com states "At the end of the day, I have a feeling that it wasn’t exactly ‘adoption’ that killed Bing Cashback, but rather poor ROI."  Brian also offers some quality (and different) insights in his post titled Bing Cashback Retired (which I’d suggest reading as well).

But let’s take a real-life example, Overstock.com.  Bing offers up to 15% back on purchases, tripling its closest competitors.   (Cashback Comparison chart below provided from the Evreward.com – cashback aggregator site)

If you do some research you’ll notice this to be a common trend.  Bing has often offered more in cashback percentage (%) then a normal affiliate could even generate as commission percentage!

Looking back…  The life of Bing Cashback.

JellyFish fished launched in 2006, almost exactly 4 years ago.  With its innovative features in the space it quickly gained popularity.  Only a little over a year later it was snatched up by Microsoft.  Microsoft soon rolled it into Microsoft Live Search Cashback.  Microsoft Live Search was essentially later renamed and rebranded to Bing – and thus it was renamed to Bing Cashback.

Finally, Microsoft put forth a large amount of marketing efforts, not only to Bing itself, but also to the Bing Cashback program… at least for the initial stages of its life.

In the end….

There are certainly mixed emotions from the consumers who used Bing CB the most, the bargain hunters.  Just read a few of the over 150 replies (and counting) in this related FatWallet thread, and you’ll see.  A senior FatWallet member notes “If Bing CB goes away, then I’m switching to Google search,” another another FW member adds “another half-baked microsoft idea goes into the trash can…”

At the end of the day I’m left with a negative feeling about Microsoft’s mentality — which seems to be: If it doesn’t work, fix it just quit.  I know it isn’t that simple, but it does leave that horrible taste… And I’m not the only one feeling it.

1. Test Magento Live Online
   The Magento.com website allows you to get a full look at both the consumer side and the merchant administrator side of the Magento Commerce software.  See the links below:

   Consumer View
   http://www.magentocommerce.com/demo

   Merchant / Admin View
   http://demo-admin.magentocommerce.com/index.php/admin/

2. Test Magento in a Virtual Instance
   The live online Magento demo does have some restrictions and resets itself quite often.  To get a hands on look, you can deploy Magento Commerce in a virtual environment.  Here are two options:Jumbox (Requires Subscriber Level) – The JumpBox image can easily be run in VMWare (VMWare server is free), or deployed directly to Amazon EC2.
   http://www.jumpbox.com/app/magento

   VMWare Virtual Appliance – Since JumpBox requires a monthly subscription, I’ve found an alternative.  However I haven’t tested it, and it appears to be user created, so proceed with caution.  It is a virtual appliance that can be run directly in VMWare.
   http://magentodev.blogspot.com/2009/03/magento-vmware-virtual-appliance.html

3. Try Magento on Shared Hosting or in the Cloud
   Hosting plans are cheap enough and many include abilities to easily setup Magento Commerce.  Specifically, I know that BlueHost uses SimpleScripts to handle all aspects of Magento Commerce installation.  You can have a live implementation setup with just a few clicks and a payment of $6.95 / mo.If you are looking to get a deployment up that you can test, push live, and then easily scale, for $149 / mo Rackspace Cloud Sites might be a good option.  Nathan Totten has a good writeup on how to get Magento setup on Rackspace Cloud Sites, which can be (based on his writings) a bit tricky.
4. Test it your way!
   Of course, you always have the ability to download and set it up yourself on your own hardware, shared resources, or virtual environment.  You can find the latest downloadable edition here.  Be sure you have all of the system requirements covered.  This can be easily tested by running the Magento Check script.  Finding the most up to date installation guide seemed to be a bit of a task.  You should check out these helpful forums for the latest information:
   http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/1647/
   http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewforum/9/

Finally a note for merchants who want an affiliate program within.  A free software called Affiliates for All is available at the AFA website.  There has been some discussion about it here with regards to Magento, as well as on the AFA forums.

One of the main features pushed out was the social plugins  — which are small pieces of code that let website owners quickly connect Facebook to their website. The most popular one being the “Like” button (due to ease of integration). TechCrunch reported that just a week after f8, 50,000 websites now feature the Like button and other social plugins.

Facebook has decided to phase out the "Become a Fan" terminology and replace it with “Like” — both on Facebook pages as well as on the social plugins. Retailers are already pushing this to better engage with their consumers and increase their Facebook network exposure.  Shoes.com for example set out an email blast campaigning to offer special deals and insider information to those who “Like” the Shoes.com Facebook page.

Following the email from Shoes.com users are brought to a special tab on Shoes.com’s Facebook page call “shoes $avings.”  The page is partially blank and reads: “Can’t see the special offer below? LIKE US on Facebook and it’s all yours! Enjoy!”

Is this smart marketing or just an annoyance for consumers?  How far will retailers go to get more likes?  Over time will users perceive Likes to be less  legitimate if they are incentivized?

This blog aims to provide insights on all types of commerce, which is continually evolving, from a 360 degree perspective.

Please bear with me as I transition related industry posts from Next Generation Shopping blog to the Commerce Crunch blog.