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Retailers
line up special deals for Cyber Monday
22 November 2007
Around 75 per cent of Internet
retailers will offer special deals on Cyber Monday to kick off the holiday online
shopping season, a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey released on Monday
19 November shows. The
survey, conducted among 116 retailers, showed that 72 per cent have special offers
lined up, while only 43 per cent featured offers similar to two years ago, when
the Monday after Thanksgiving was first dubbed Cyber Monday. Online
shoppers often scour the Internet from office computers during lunch breaks or
when they're supposed to be working. And they are getting wise about looking for
great deals. Gifts.com, which provides information about online sales, says its
Cyber Monday visitors more than tripled last year from 2005. Next
Monday, about one-third of Internet stores will offer special e-mail campaigns
and almost 30 per cent will have one-day sales, the NRF survey says. Many retailers
also will offer free shipping for the holiday season. Cyber
Monday isn't the No: 1 online shopping day, but retailers still compete hard for
customers. This year, retailers want to hook shoppers sooner, because they are
worried a weak economy may make people thrifty around Christmas, spending less
than last year. The
term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the
ceremonial kick-off of the online holiday shopping season in the United States
between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Black
Friday is associated with traditional brick-and-mortar stores, while Cyber Monday
symbolises a busy day for online retailers. The term 'Cyber Monday' was coined
based on research saying that 77 per cent of online retailers reported a significant
increase in sales the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004. The
theory behind its 2005 launch was that consumers would return to their offices
after the Black Friday weekend, making purchases online that they were not able
to make in stores. This theory has not survived the test of time. Nonetheless,
Cyber Monday has evolved into a significant marketing event, sponsored by the
National Retail Federation's Shop.org division, in which online retailers offer
low prices and promotions.  Cyber
Monday is not the busiest shopping day of the year for online retailers; the busiest
shopping days usually fall between 5 and 15 December in any given year. In 2005,
the year the term Cyber Monday was launched, the busiest online shopping day of
the year in the US was actually 12 December, two weeks after Cyber Monday.
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