Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving and is a very important day in America's shopping calendar. The term Cyber Monday was initially used to describe the American trend of staying at home over the thanksgiving holiday and using the time to buy goods and products. Retailers would also encourage the trend by introducing sales and bargains at this time of the year. As the term became introduced and then widely recognized and used all over the world, it has now become as important to retailers as Black Friday, and Cyber Monday promotions are available in almost all online stores.
History
The first use of the term Cyber Monday was in 2005 when shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, wrote an article exploring the growing popularity of shopping online after thanksgiving. According to research made by shop.org at the time, 37% of consumers said that they would be using the internet at work on Cyber Monday to finish the online shopping they had started at the weekend. This included 51% of 18 - 24 year-olds and 49% of 25 - 34 year-olds.
Initially, there was some resistance to the introduction of another shopping holiday so close to Black Friday, and some newspapers wrote articles about the pressure an additional shopping holiday would put on people's budgets. The day however has continued to grow and grow, in 2020 there was an incredible $10.8 billion spent by Americans on shopping, 15% more than was spent in 2019.
Five cyber facts
- 43% of Cyber Monday shopping is done on smartphones.
- The average amount of money spent on Cyber Monday is $312
- Amazon.com is the most popular website for online shopping on Cyber Monday.
- Apple products were among the most popular products in 2021 with Apple Watches, Airpods, and Apple Pencils being the most in-demand devices.
- Cyber Monday is now more popular than Black Friday, in 2020 Black Friday saw $9 Billion in sales, whereas Cyber Monday saw $10.8 Billion.
How to celebrate
Although Cyber Monday is now a major opportunity to find deals and opportunities to buy items online there have also been recent reports of shopping scams and fraudulent websites. Extra care should be taken to make sure you are using official websites and reputable sellers.
Some websites even call on people to boycott Cyber Monday and the hype of excessive consumerism. This is an especially common view in The UK and Canada where concerns over consumerism and the environmental issues around consumer demand have led to some people rejecting Cyber Monday altogether.
For many, however, it is a great opportunity to shop online for the latest technology, gifts for others, or maybe a treat for yourself, and most of all, to save money.
You might like to read about Giving Tuesday next
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