Cyber Monday Trumps Black Friday: Why Online Shopping Is Winning
Cyber Monday has quickly become the go-to shopping day of the year.
More consumers shopped online yesterday than on Black Friday and online receipts rose 20.6% compared to 2012 Cyber Monday sales according to the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Adobe's Digital Index said Cyber Monday sales totaled $2.29 billion this year, up 16% from last year. More than 17% of shoppers placed their online orders from their mobile phones, a 55.4% year-over-year increase reports IBM. Cyber Monday, which began in 2005 as a ploy by marketing firms to get more people to buy online, ranks just behind Black Friday as one of the most profitable days of the year for retailers.
A lot of shoppers have a “fixation and a fascination” with Cyber Monday, says The Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task in the accompanying video.
“And there’s nothing like using your employer’s time to do the shopping instead of fighting with the mobs at Walmart and everywhere else,” adds Henry Blodget.
Related: Cyber Monday Jewelry Deals: Are Consumers Getting the Best Price?
Shopping online has risen in popularity in recent years, yet more than 90% of all U.S. retail transactions still take place in a brick-and-mortar store, says research firm ShopperTrak. As online shopping becomes easier, cheaper and more efficient (think Amazon’s delivery drones) traditional retailers will be forced to adjust their modus operandi to stay relevant with consumers.
Retailers are already losing a percentage of sales and pricing power to their online competitors and this can cause “businesses to fall apart as we’ve seen with JCPenney,” explains Blodget.
Related: Ignore the Black Friday “Giant Hypefest & Huge Consumer Orgy”: Ritholtz
The National Retail Federation expects total holiday sales to grow 3.9% this year versus last year. Early reports from last weekend’s holiday shopping extravaganza paint a slightly different picture: consumers spent $1.7 billion less than they did in 2012 and the amount each consumer spent on average this year dropped to $407.02 from $423.55 in 2012. ShopperTrak reported that traffic at stores on Black Friday fell 11.4% and revenue plunged 13.2% compared with 2012 figures.
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