Cyber Monday is the new Black Friday
Shoppers know the day after Thanksgiving can be a gold mine of bargains. But these are the new days. Cyber Monday is the new Black Friday.
Masses were out in force on Friday, credit cards and checkbooks in hand, spending and spending. It looks like it was an increase of only 1% or so over last year. Not a reason for cheering but better than a decline. People have come to expect to see discounts online that are even better than what they see in the stores.
According to the National Retail Federation, more than 53 percent of workers, almost 69 million people, will hop online to do some shopping this coming Monday. A few pundit economists were predicting numbers around 85 million.
Even though the D.C. based National Retail Federation is projecting sales to slip compared to this time last year analysts from Forrester Research predict that online holiday retail sales will be up 8 percent over 2008 figures. This despite the lingering effects of a deep recession. Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst with Forrester, says "the online space remains the retail industry's growth engine,"
As usual, a high percentage of those online shoppers are going to be younger men. We'll see how much they're willing to spend. (does anyone buy Axe online?)
The vast majority of would-be purchasers start their buying process with a search. That's old news. It's also old news that most of that number will be claimed by Google. While it's doubtfull that this season's shopping is going to see the same sort of jump it's enjoyed over the past few years, there will certainly be a lot of money spent and decisions made over the next couple of weeks. Businesses that spent the summer and fall investing in organic SEO and organic SEM are likely to recoup the money they spent.
Do you know what your organic search engine ranking is? (You do know what that is, right?) Is there a reason for you to be happy when you come in to the office on Tuesday or will this be the beginning of a blue Christmas for you?
