Cyber Monday

Status: Marketing gimmick
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when all the stores have their big sales. It's said to be the biggest shopping day of the year. Cyber Monday comes three days later, and (according to what I heard on many newsasts this year) is supposed to be the biggest day for online shopping, a phenomenon caused by millions of shoppers returning to work on Monday and looking for bargains online. But apparently Cyber Monday isn't the biggest online shopping day of the year. And the term itself is the very recent invention of marketers. Robert Hof debunks Cyber Monday in an article in BusinessWeek.com:

Contrary to what the recent blitz of media coverage implies, Cyber Monday isn't nearly the biggest online shopping or spending day of the year. It ranks only as the 12th-biggest day historically, according to market researcher comScore Networks. It's not even the first big day of the season. For most online retailers, the bigger spending day of the season to date was way back on Nov. 22, three days before Black Friday. What's more, most e-tailers say the season's top spending day comes much later, between around Dec. 5 and Dec. 15...
So what's up with this Cyber Monday idea? A little bit of reality and a whole lot of savvy marketing. It turns out that Shop.org, an association for retailers that sell online, dreamed up the term just days before putting out a Nov. 21 press release touting Cyber Monday as "one of the biggest online shopping days of the year." The idea was born when a few people at the organization were brainstorming about how to promote online shopping, says Shop.org Executive Director Scott Silverman... "It's not the biggest day," Silverman concedes. "But it was an opportunity to create some consumer excitement."

It's kind of sad to see how eagerly the media promoted this as if it was something real.

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Posted on Thu Dec 01, 2005


Comments

Alex said:

"It's kind of sad to see how eagerly the media promoted this as if it was something real."

Boy, ain't that the truth! I never heard the term "Cyber Monday" until last week when the news shows started using it as if it was an established thing. Pathetic. I'm not the least bit surprised that it's the invention of a marketing company. That's pretty much what I suspected when it suddenly became ubiquitous.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Fri Dec 02, 2005  at  01:33 AM
I remember when Cyber Monday meant something a LOT different.
Posted by Craig  on  Fri Dec 02, 2005  at  04:55 AM
That was before the calluses on your hand became too painful, right, Craig? 😊
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Fri Dec 02, 2005  at  06:16 AM
I had never heard of it before this year either. I love pointing out to people how the media has distorted or even created facts just for the stories. I've already had two people get mad at me this year for pointing out that the day after Thanksgiving isn't the biggest shopping day of the year. 😊
Posted by Charybdis  on  Fri Dec 02, 2005  at  07:59 AM
After discovering Aveeno, EVERY day is Cyber Monday.
Posted by Craig  on  Fri Dec 02, 2005  at  08:15 AM
I guess by putting in the qualifier "one of the" they are covered if someone accuses them of issuing a false press release. Very shady, but technically not a lie.
Posted by Chris Carlisle  on  Fri Dec 02, 2005  at  02:37 PM
Yes, I think Cyber Monday is definitely one of the 365 biggest online shopping days of the year (one of the 366 biggest in leap years).
Posted by Big Gary in Luckenbach, Texas  on  Fri Dec 02, 2005  at  04:17 PM
We had an article about it in our paper here in Sacramento, California. *shrug* Can't see why it would be any busier, except that all the orders over the weekend would have to be processed by some poor schlub that monday..
Posted by Robin Bobcat  on  Sat Dec 03, 2005  at  03:24 AM
People are just being dumb as usual. Proper Netiquette is to shop whenever the hell we want to.
Posted by eriC draveS  on  Sat Dec 03, 2005  at  06:05 PM
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