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Cyber Monday is a marketing term for e-commerce transactions on the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It was created by retailers to encourage people to shop online. The term was coined by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation and Scott Silverman, and 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] Cyber Monday takes place the Monday after Thanksgiving; the date falls between November 26 and December 2, depending on the year.
Cyber Monday has become the online equivalent to Black Friday and offers a way for smaller retail websites to compete with larger chains. [2] Since its inception, it has become an international marketing term used by online retailers around the world.
The shopping event, which originated in 1950 with retail stores lowering prices and extending hours, evolved into a global online phenomenon in 2000, boasting one of the highest worldwide sales, and subsequently inspired the creation of Cyber Monday in 2005. [3] 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 2017, Cyber Monday online sales grew to a record of $6.59 billion, compared with $2.98 billion in 2015, and $2.65 billion in 2014. However, the average order value was $128, down slightly from 2014's $160. [4] The Cyber Monday on November 30, 2020 (the first during the COVID-19 pandemic) was the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history with a total of $10.7 billion in online spending. [5]
The term "Cyber Monday" was coined by Ellen Davis, [6] [7] and was first used within the ecommerce community during the 2005 holiday season. [8] 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). [9] Retailers also noted the most significant shopping period was December 5 through 15 of the previous year. In late November 2005, The New York Times reported: "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." [10] At the time, a lot of people had slow Internet at home. [11] The idea for having such a holiday was created by Tony Valado, in 2003 while working at 1800Flowers.com, and coined "White Wednesday" to be the day before Thanksgiving for online retailers. [12]
According to Argentine press and marked a tenfold growth in users taking advantage of online sales over the previous year. [13]
Beginning at 7 pm AEDT on November 20 in 2012, Australian online retailers decided to hold 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. David Jones, a major retailer, ran a competing sale dubbed 'Christmas Frenzy' on the same date.
In Belgium, Cyber Monday has gained popularity since 2016. Due to efforts off several major online shops launching large Cyber Monday campaigns, the average revenue during Cyber Monday has increased with 50% compared to the 2015 edition. [14] [15]
Cyber Monday came to Canada in 2008. [16] The National Post featured an article published on November 25, 2010, stating that the parity of the Canadian dollar with the US dollar caused 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. [17] 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. [17]
By 2011, around 80% of online retailers in Canada were participating in Cyber Monday. [16]
Chile's first Cyber Monday took place on November 28, 2011. The companies participating in the event are participants in the Santiago Chamber of Commerce's Electronic Commerce Committee. [18] In 2015 the Chilean Cyber Monday had 85 stores participating, 390.000 transactions and US$83 million in sales. 36% of that was mobile. [19] In 2016 Cyber Monday will be held on November 7. 140 companies are registered as official partners.
The first Cyber Monday in Colombia took place on November 26, 2012. It was organized by the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce and sponsored by the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications. [20]
Inspired by the U.S. phenomenon, the term Cyber Monday was first used in France in 2008. [21]
Amazon.de announced that it brought Cyber Monday to Germany in 2010. [22] As of 2014, amazon.de continues to advertise Cyber Monday and has extended it to an 8-day period ("Cyber Monday week") beginning on the Monday before Thanksgiving.
India got its own version of the Cyber Monday (Great Online Shopping Festival) on December 12, 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 an industry-wide initiative of this scale was undertaken. [23] In November 2015, Google announced that the event would not be repeated. [24]
Amazon.co.jp announced it registered as Cyber Monday with Japan Anniversary Association in 2012. Amazon.co.jp ran the Cyber Monday Seven Day Sale from Dec 10 through December 16, 2012. [25]
In the Netherlands, the term Cyber Monday was first used in 2012. Since then, Dutch online retailers have taken advantage of Cyber Monday in promotional purposes, because it is perfectly timed before the celebration of Sinterklaas which is celebrated by buying gifts for each other in Netherlands. Since 2012, the popularity of Cyber Monday has grown strongly every year in the Netherlands. In total there were 105 participating online stores during the Cyber Monday period of 2017. During Cyber Monday 2019 the total of shops increased with 40 to 189 shops in total
Online retailer Belly Beyond held the first Cyber Monday Sale in New Zealand on November 29, 2010. [26] The sale lasted for five days, from Monday to Friday.
In Portugal, the term Cyber Monday was first used in 2009. [27]
In Romania, Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Black Friday, which is held by the biggest retailers one week before the US Black Friday.
In Sweden Cyber Monday is growing rapidly and several of the largest online retailers regularly launch Cyber Monday campaigns. [28] Cyber Monday was first established on larger online retailers in Sweden 2010. [29]
According to a 2009 The Guardian article, 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. [30]
In 2006, comScore reported that online spending on Cyber Monday jumped 25% to $608 million, [31] 21% to $733 million in 2007, [32] and 15% to $846 million in 2008. [33]
In 2009, comScore reported that online spending increased five 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. [34] 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." [34]
In 2010, comScore reported the first-ever $1 billion online shopping day ($1028M), an increase of 16 percent over 2009. [35] In 2011, comScore reported that Cyber Week saw US consumers spend over $6 billion online from November 28 to December 2. [36] In 2012, comScore reported that Cyber Monday saw a 16% increase in sales from 2011, totaling $1.5 billion. [37] In 2013, Cyber Monday sales continued their growth and recorded their highest grossing day ever at $2.29 billion. [38]
In 2014, the average planned expenditure was $361 per person. 46 percent of people expect to pay with credit cards and 43 percent expect to pay with debit cards. [39] Sales are up 8.1%, according to IBM Digital Analytics. The average order is $131.66, flat with last year, though the number of transactions is up and people are buying more items on average per order. [40]
In 2016, according to Adobe Digital Insights, [41] Cyber Monday hit a new record with $3.45 billion, and which was the first time that online sales in one single day surpassed $3 billion in US history. The numbers went up 12.1% from the previous year. [42]
In 2018, according to Adobe Analytics Cyber Monday hits a record $7.9 billion of online spending which is a 19.3% increase from a year ago. [43]
In 2019, according to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday mobile transactions totaled $3.1 billion with total online sales reaching a record $9.4 billion. [44]
Day | Year | Sales (millions of USD) | % Change |
---|---|---|---|
November 27 | 2006 | $610 | N/A |
November 26 | 2007 | $730 | 20% |
December 1 | 2008 | $846 | 16% |
November 30 | 2009 | $887 | 4.7% |
November 29 | 2010 | $1,028 | 16% |
November 28 | 2011 | $1,251 | 22% |
November 26 | 2012 | $1,465 | 17% |
December 2 | 2013 | $1,735 | 18% |
December 1 | 2014 | $2,038 [45] | 17% |
November 30 | 2015 | $2,280 | 12% |
November 28 | 2016 | $2,671 | 17% |
November 27 | 2017 | $3,364 [46] | 26% |
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide. Boxing Day was once a day to donate gifts to those in need, but it has evolved to become a part of Christmas festivities, with many people choosing to shop for deals on Boxing Day. It originated in the United Kingdom and is celebrated in several Commonwealth nations. The attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place on 27 or 28 December if necessary to ensure it falls on a weekday. Boxing Day is also concurrent with the Christian festival Saint Stephen's Day.
E-commerce is the activity of electronically buying or selling products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce is the largest sector of the electronics industry and is in turn driven by the technological advances of the semiconductor industry.
Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday or for a week.
In the United States, public holidays are set by federal, state, and local governments and are often observed by closing government offices or giving government employees paid time off. The federal government does not require private businesses to close or offer paid time off, as is the case for most state and local governments, so employers determine which holidays to observe.
Amazon China, formerly known as Joyo.com, is an online shopping website. Joyo.com was founded in early 2000 by the Chinese entrepreneur Lei Jun in Beijing, China. The company primarily sold books and other media goods, shipping to customers nationwide. Joyo.com was renamed to “Amazon China” when sold to Amazon Inc in 2004 for US$75 Million. Amazon China closed its domestic business in China in June 2019, offering only products from sellers located overseas.
Christmas creep is a merchandising phenomenon in which merchants and retailers introduce Christmas-themed merchandise or decorations before the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, which in the United States is on the day after Thanksgiving. The term was first used in the mid-1980s.
Green Monday is an online retail industry term similar to Cyber Monday. The term was coined by Shopping.com, an eBay company, in 2007 to describe the best eCommerce sales day in December, usually the second Monday of December. After doing some internal research, they realized that the second Monday in December was the last day that shoppers were able to place an online order that would arrive in time for the holidays. Green Monday is defined more specifically by business research organization comScore as the last Monday with at least 10 days prior to Christmas.
The Christmas season or the festive season; also known as the holiday season or the holidays, is an annual period generally spanning from late November or December to early January. Incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the various celebrations during this time create a peak season for the retail sector extending to the end of the period. Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies are customary traditions in various locales.
The Singles' Day or Double 11, originally called Bachelors' Day, is a Chinese unofficial holiday and shopping season that celebrates people who are not in a relationship. The date, 11 November (11/11), was chosen because the numeral 1 resembles a bare stick, which is Chinese Internet slang for an unmarried man who does not add 'branches' to the family tree. The four '1's also abstractly refer to the demographic group of single people. Ironically, the holiday has become a popular date on which to celebrate relationships: more than 4,000 couples got married in Beijing on this date in 2011, far greater than the daily average of 700 marriages.
In retail, a doorbuster or door crasher deal is an offer that is handed out early into the business's opening hours; this offer almost always is promoting a good in limited supply. These deals are designed to attract large numbers of shoppers into the business.
Super Saturday or Panic Saturday is the last Saturday before Christmas or Christmas Eve, and is a major day of revenue for American retailers, marking the end of the shopping season which begins on Black Friday. Super Saturday targets last-minute shoppers. Typically the day is ridden with one-day sales in an effort to accrue more revenue than any other day in the Christmas and holiday season. The date is slightly more likely to fall on December 22, 19, or 17, than on December 21 or 20 (57), and slightly less likely to occur on December 23 or 18 (56). On years when Christmas falls on a Sunday, Super Saturday is officially on December 17 instead of December 24 even though the last Saturday before Christmas is December 24.
Cyber Black Friday is a marketing term for the online version of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term made its debut in a 2009 press release entitled "Black Friday Goes Online for Cyber Black Friday". According to TechCrunch, there was $9 billion in online sales on Cyber Black Friday, which is up 21.6% from 2019. With this, the average cart-size for a shopper was $95.60, and Shopify noted that there was an average of $6.3 million spent per minute across their more than one million merchant platform. A lot of this spending was directed towards technological devices, primarily smart phones. Of the $9 billion is sales, $3.6 billion (40%) was for smart phones. However, Cyber Black Friday is still inferior to its sister, Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is primarily known to offer more discounted items, and is projected to reach sales between $11.2 billion and $13 billion in 2020. On a more promising note, Gian Fulgoni of comScore said, "Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world." Some Cyber Black Friday sales are short-lived, last through the weekend, into Cyber Monday, and beyond.
Small Business Saturday is a marketing initiative created and promoted by American Express to encourage holiday shopping on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the United States, during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. This Saturday is always the last one in November, so it falls between November 24 and November 30.
Free Shipping Day is a one-day event held annually in mid-December. On the promotional holiday, consumers can shop from both large and small online merchants that offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve.
India has an Internet user base of about 690.0 million as of November 2023, about 40% of the population. Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only behind China, the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States, or France, but is growing, adding around 6 million new entrants every month. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point.
The Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) was an online shopping event created by Google India on 12 December 2012 in collaboration with a number of Indian online shopping portals. The concept of the GOSF was that the online shopping sites would give heavy discounts for one day, in order to promote their sales. In November 2015, Google announced that the event would not be repeated.
The economics of Christmas are significant because Christmas is typically a high-volume selling season for goods suppliers around the world. Sales increase dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate. In the U.S., the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October. In Canada, merchants begin advertising campaigns just before Halloween, and step up their marketing following Remembrance Day on 11 November. In the UK and Ireland, the Christmas shopping season starts from mid-November, around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on. In the United States, it has been calculated that about one fifth of retail sales to one quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal that expenditure in department stores nationwide rose from $20.8 billion in November 2004 to $31.9 billion in December 2004, an increase of 54 percent. In other sectors, the pre-Christmas increase in spending was even greater, due to a November through December buying surge of 100% in bookstores and 170% in jewelry stores. In the same year employment in American retail stores rose from 1.6 million to 1.8 million in the two months leading up to Christmas. This means that while consumers might spend more during this season, they also are given increased employment opportunities as sales rise to meet the increased demand.
Slickdeals is a mobile app and online platform where community members report and upvote the best deals on the internet each day. It is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Black Friday hoax is an internet hoax about the origin of the term "Black Friday." The term denotes the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, a day that traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. A 2018 viral Facebook post made the false claim that the name derives from a day when slave traders sold slaves at a discount. The term actually originates from a 19th century financial crisis.
Travel Tuesday, also known as Travel Deal Tuesday, is a marketing term for e-commerce transactions occurring on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It originated in 2017, when Hopper, an online flight marketplace, realized that the Tuesday after Thanksgiving was profitable for consumers to book flights. It is mainly a United States-based phenomenon. However, some overseas companies do recognize the holiday.