by Katie Elfering
You think online holiday shopping is all about Cyber Monday? Not even. Sure, the Monday after Thanksgiving gets all the attention, but it’s actually the Monday a couple weeks later when consumers really shell out the bucks. December 10th, 2007 was actually the biggest day for online sales ever (dubbed Green Monday by eBay) and there’s a good chance that today, December 15th, could match or top it.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Black Friday online sales were up 1%, which doesn’t seem like much, but added with last years 22% increase, sounds pretty good. Cyber Monday, so dubbed by Shop.org, did pretty well too. 84% of retailers offered deals, 85% of people planned to take advantage of those deals, and sales were up 15% to $846 million.
In the consumer world, it’s less about the day and more about the deal, which is why December 15th could be a big winner. Sure, consumers crashed stores on Black Friday… but as many reports stated, there were more shoppers than shopping bags. This year, consumers seem almost blindly focused on getting the best deal – and they’ll taking their money off the table if the swap isn’t right. It doesn’t matter so much whether that’s on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or the 15th of December. They just want the lowest price, the best quality, free shipping and the peace of mind that they were savvy shoppers.
In the retail world, a shift has been made over the past several years as consumers have more tech access and Internet in the home. No longer do retailers need to wait until Cyber Monday to come out with online deals. Consumers are going online on Black Friday to avoid the crowds in the malls; they’re even logging on Thanksgiving Thursday to scope out deals and do some shopping. Sure, they don’t mind a focused deal day like Cyber Monday, but Always On consumers want Always On deals.
That said, I’m scanning my email and checking out the deals to get my holiday shopping done. Like most consumers, I’m trying to not pay full price and not pay shipping for anything this year—and it’s not even requiring that much work. My fave retailers – places like Amazon, Nordstrom and Crate & Barrel – are making it pretty easy, even going so far as to set up Free Shipping Day to make it simple to save. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Green Monday and Free Shipping Day—it’s never been easier to find a day to save.
