Cyber Monday – The Biggest E-Commerce Day of the Year:
Cyber Monday is the online equivalent to Black Friday, which marks the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season. The marketing term ‘Cyber Monday’ was coined in 2005 upon discovery that historically the Monday after Thanksgiving experiences a spike in online sales. There are a handful of theories as to why it has become so popular, but the main reason seems to having something to do with how unpleasant the experience of traditional Thanksgiving-weekend shopping has become. Why cut your Thanksgiving short to camp out in the parking lot of a brick-and-mortar store when you can take advantage of bargains with the simple click of a button in the comforts of your own home? The answer for most people is rather obvious.
While Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year overall, Cyber Monday is still the biggest shopping day online. In 2017, online sales on Black Friday were roughly $5 billion compared to Cyber Monday’s $6.5 billion. Of that $6.5 billion, over $2 billion came from mobile sales. In 2018, roughly 75 million people are expected to shop online for Cyber Monday and ultimately spend somewhere around $8 billion. From 2016 to 2017, sales grew an impressive 91% to over $6.5 billion. If consumers spend the expected $8 billion this year, it will only be about a 20% bump from 2017. We’ll just have to wait and see what the final numbers have in store, but my personal prediction is that the $8 billion mark will be exceeded. With popular online retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target aggressively promoting and offering deep discounts on Cyber Monday, consumers will continue to take advantage of it each and every year.
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