Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. The term “Cyber Monday” was created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online. The term made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled “‘Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year”.^[1]

According to the Shop.org/BizRate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, “77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)”. In 2010, comScore^[2] reported that consumers spent $1.028 Billion online on Cyber Monday (excluding travel, 2009: $887M), the highest spending day of 2010.

Cyber Monday has become an international marketing term used by online retailers in Canada, the United Kingdom, Portugal,Germany, Chile, Colombia, and Japan.

Origin of term

The term was first used within the ecommerce community during the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the head of Shop.org, the term was coined based on 2004 research showing “one of the biggest online shopping days of the year” was the Monday after Thanksgiving (12th-biggest day historically).^{[citation needed]} Retailers also noted the biggest period was December 5 through 15 of the previous year.^[3][4] In late November 2005, the New York Times reported that “The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked.”^[5] The idea for having such a holiday was created by Tony Valado, ^[6] in 2003, while working at 1800Flowers.com and coined White Wednesday to be held the day before thanksgiving for online retailers.

United States[edit]

Online spending[edit]

In 2006, comScore reported that online spending on Cyber Monday jumped 25% to $608 million,^[7] 21% to $733 million in 2007,^[8] and 15% to $846 million in 2008.^[9]

In 2009, comScore reported that online spending increased 5 percent on Cyber Monday to $887 million and that more than half of dollars spent online at US Web sites originated from work computers (52.7 percent), representing a gain of 2.3 percentage points from last year.^[10] Buying from home comprised the majority of the remaining share (41.6 percent) while buying from international locations accounted for 5.8 percent. According to comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, “comScore data have shown that Cyber Monday online sales have always been driven by considerable buying activity from work locations. That pattern hasn’t changed. After returning from the long Thanksgiving weekend with a lot of holiday shopping still ahead of them, many consumers tend to continue their holiday shopping from work. Whether to take advantage of the extensive Cyber Monday deals offered by retailers or to buy gifts away from the prying eyes of family members, this day has become an annual ritual for America’s online holiday shoppers.”^[10]

In 2010, comScore reported the first-ever $1 billion online shopping day ($1028M), an increase of 16 percent over 2009.^[11] In 2011, comScore reported that Cyber Week saw US consumers spend over $6 billion online from November 28 to December 2.^[12] In 2012, comScore reported that Cyber Monday saw a 17% increase in sales from 2011, totaling $1.465 billion.^[13]

Employers and online shopping[edit]

U.S. employers have been cracking down on employees using company equipment and company time for non-work-related purposes, including Cyber Monday. As of November 2011, 22% of employers had fired an employee for using the Internet for non-work related activity; 7% of human resource managers surveyed had fired an employee for holiday shopping; and 54% of employers were blocking employees from accessing certain websites.^[14]

Other countries

Canada

Cyber Monday came to Canada in 2008.^[15] The National Post featured an article, in the November 25, 2010, edition, stating that the parity of the Canadian dollar with the US dollarcaused many Canadian retailers to have Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales of their own. According to the article, an estimated 80% of Canadians were expected to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.^[16] Speculation has been made that with all major US television broadcasters—which are typically available to Canadians—emphasizing Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales for stores that are also doing business in Canada, Canadian retailers needed to mimic sales offerings in order to keep Canadian dollars from being spent in the US.^[16]

By 2011, around 80% of online retailers in Canada were participating in Cyber Monday.^[15]

United Kingdom, Germany, and Europe

Cyber Monday is also used as a marketing term in the United Kingdom however the U.K. is more commonly using the term “Mega Monday”, instead, Germany, Portugal andFrance.

• According to the Guardian, UK online retailers are now referring to “Cyber Monday” as the busiest internet shopping day of the year that commonly falls on the same day as the US Cyber Monday.^[17]
• Amazon.de announced that it brought Cyber Monday to Germany in 2010.^[18]
• In Portugal, the term Cyber Monday was first used in 2009.^[19]
• Inspired by the U.S. phenomenon, the term Cyber Monday was first used in France in 2008.^[20]

New Zealand

Online retailer Belly Beyond, held the first Cyber Monday Sale in New Zealand on 29 November 2010.^[21] The sale lasted for five days, from Monday to Friday.

Chile

Chile’s first Cyber Monday took place on 28 November 2011. The companies participating in the event are those part of the Santiago Chamber of Commerce’s Electronic Commerce Committee.^[22]

Colombia

The first Cyber Monday in Colombia took place on 26 November 2012. It was organized by the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce and sponsored by the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications.^[23]

Australia

Beginning at 7pm AEDT on 20 November 2012, Australian online retailers held a similar event for the first time, dubbed ‘Click Frenzy’. Many websites immediately crashed, went offline, or had major server issues, including the Click Frenzy promotion website. A major Australian retailer, David Jones, ran a competing sale dubbed ‘Christmas Frenzy’ on the same date.

Japan

Amazon.co.jp announced it registered as Cyber Monday with Japan Anniversary Association in 2012. Amazon.co.jp will run Cyber Monday Seven Day Sale from Dec 10 through Dec 16, 2012. ^[24]

India

India got its own version of the Cyber Monday on 12 December 2012 when Google India partnered with many e-commerce companies including Flipkart, Snapdeal, HomeShop18,Indiatimes shopping, and MakeMyTrip. Google said that this was the first time that an industry wide initiative of this scale was undertaken.

The Increasing Popularity of Cyber Monday, Online Shopping & Ecommerce

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the beginning of the Christmas and shopping season, and has given birth to a new crazed shopping trend coined Cyber Monday. In the United States, shoppers rush to brick-and-mortar stores to find the latest “hot” items on sale at deep discounts on Black Friday. Cyber Monday works the same principle, except that it occurs online following the Monday after Thanksgiving. In 2005, Shop.org coined the term “Cyber Monday” after analyzing increased Internet traffic and sales on the first day that most people return to work after the holiday weekend.

Although Cyber Monday lacks the popularity of the infamous Black Friday shopping spree, evidence indicates an upsurge in online purchases on the day following Thanksgiving weekend. Many attribute this upward swing based on the fact that the same stores extend their deep discounts to online consumers beyond Black Friday. Analysts suggest that this trend continues to grow along with the percent of households signing up for a broadband connection. In fact, roughly 2/3 of households have a broadband connection in the United States. Despite this fact, a large percentage of online shoppers make purchases from workplace computers on Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday does not always yield the biggest profits. In fact, it usually happens on a Monday later on in December, mainly because online shoppers have to wait to receive their purchase at least one week in advance in order to have their package arrive by Christmas. Since its inception, online consumers have started to spread the word about Cyber Monday. Between 2006 and 2011, online sales doubled to over 1.2 billion dollars on Cyber Monday. The success of Cyber Monday has made itself known in other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and others European countries, so much that they have started offering deals on this day to capitalize on the trend.

Many online retailers have taken advantage of this upsurge in consumer spending by offering discounts, incentives, savings options, and free shipping. Shop.org originally coined “Cyber Monday” as a marketing term to promote business on an already busy day. Online retail stores have not limited their sales and discounts only for Cyber Monday; however, they certainly have started to capitalize on its popularity by marketing early in the season. While Cyber Monday offers unbeatable discounts, online retailers will still promote sales throughout the holiday season.

Online retailers promote Cyber Monday using a variety of Internet marketing strategies, including smart phone advertisements. Comparison shoppers with smart phones connected to the Internet can easily find the hottest deals with the press of a button. Many online retailers have apps that allow smart phone users to look up products in their store. As a result, the buyer has an opportunity to explore other online stores for steeper bargains. In addition, this breeds fierce competition that grants online shoppers discounts not found in brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday.

The Internet serves as more than a sales channel. In fact, many consumers use the Internet to research products before they go out to buy them at brick-and-mortar stores. As a result, major retailers have established an online presence simply as a marketing tool for in-store bargains. The same concept applies on Cyber Monday for online shoppers who simply want to peruse catalogs in hopes of purchasing items later. In-store consumers may also seek out deals for items that they could not purchase on Black Friday. Other consumers may want to look and feel the product upfront before they purchase on the Internet on Cyber Monday. Many retailers promote online sales in their brick-and-mortar stores, and in-store sales on their business websites. Retailers have sent email coupons to promote online and in-store deals through newsletters. Email coupons contain special codes redeemable at the time of purchase. Retailers may also use QR codes for online shoppers to use while shopping in their brick-and-mortar stores.