It’s no secret that in 2020, more and more Americans are shopping online than ever before. Whether they’re buying necessities online rather than heading to big box stores or boutiques in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, or making impulse purchases because they’re at home and spending more time online, eCommerce websites are booming.
You may not have realized it, but Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, averages 873,964,000 searches per day. And many of those Bing searches are looking for products they can conveniently purchase online with just a few clicks.
Now, Bing is making it easier than ever for your eCommerce website’s products to get discovered by Bing shoppers. The company recently announced that it is now providing free product listings for eCommerce sellers who have approved offers in their Microsoft Merchanter Center store.
Sections
What are Bing’s Free Product Listings Like?
Bing’s shopping tab, which is accessible from its search engine results page, is a great way for online shoppers to find products they want – or may not yet even realize they need.
When you first click on the Shopping tab, you’ll see both top categories to browse through, as well as suggested categories that are generated based on your recent browning history and current market trends. There’s also a search bar for you to type in a search term for a specific product you are looking for.
Once you’re at the search results page, there are a variety of filtering options that help Bing shoppers narrow down their online shopping searches. For example, if you search for “shoes,” you’ll have the following filtering options:
- Brand
- Pre-determined price range
- Custom price range
- Color,
- Occasion
- Shoe types
- Size
- Department (men or women)
- Seller
- Heel style
- Shoe closure style
While not yet currently available, Microsoft is promising that a reporting option will be available for these free product listings in the fall.
What are the Benefits of Free Product Listings on Bing?
There are several benefits of taking advantage of free product listings on Bing. These include:
- Getting More Eyes on Your Products
All eCommerce websites are fighting for customers’ mindshare. Why would you pass up a free opportunity to showcase your products in front of web searchers who are actively looking for, or at least browsing, for the types of products you sell.
- Supplementing Your Paid Advertising Campaigns
If you already advertise on Bing, you know that while doing so is important, your ad dollars can only go so far. Your campaigns may be limited by budget, or you may have high competition for premier ad placements.
These free, organic product listings are a great way to supplement your other digital advertising efforts, including Microsoft advertising and social media marketing.
- Taking Advantage of 2020 Shoppers Who are “Just Browsing”
As we mentioned above, the Coronavirus pandemic is increasing online web browsing. With more people working remotely from home – or online helping their kids with elearning – there are more people taking sanity breaks to simply surf online. And many of these sanity breaks include browsing products they want to buy.
Take advantage of this increased web traffic by listing your products for free on Bing, to showcase them to people who might not have otherwise learned about the products you’re selling. Remember, impulse purchases are so much easier to make online when all it takes is a few clicks to go from product browser to product customer.
How to Make the Most of Your Free Bing Product Listing
Bing free product listings are currently available to eCommerce websites who have an approved offer in a Microsoft Merchant Center store in the United States. Soon, these free product listings will be available to eCommerce websites based in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and France who also have approved offers at Microsoft Merchant Center stores.
If you aren’t yet signed up with Microsoft, you learn more about the Microsoft Merchant Center program here.
Of course, since these listings are open to anyone with a Microsoft Merchant Center store in the approved locations, you need to work extra hard to make sure your free product listing stands out. Our suggestions for optimizing your free listing include:
- Use sharp, compelling images that showcase the features – and differentiators – of your products.
- Make your copy clear, concise, and enticing.
- Use all online filtering options to make it easier for online shoppers in your price range, demographic range, etc. to find your products.
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