Cyber Monday is a marketing term for e-commerce transactions on the Monday after
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. It was created by retailers to encourage people to
shop online. The term was coined by
Ellen Davis of the
National Retail Federation
The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association. Its members include department stores, catalog, Internet, and independent retailers, restaurants, grocery stores, multi-level marketing companies and vendors. ...
and Scott Silverman, and made its debut on November 28, 2005, in a
Shop.org press release entitled "''Cyber Monday'' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year."
Cyber Monday takes place the Monday after Thanksgiving; the date falls between
November 26
Events Pre-1600
* 783 – The Asturian queen Adosinda is held at a monastery to prevent her nephew from retaking the throne from Mauregatus.
* 1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dy ...
and
December 2
Events Pre-1600
* 1244 – Pope Innocent IV arrives at Lyon for the First Council of Lyon.
*1409 – The University of Leipzig opens.
1601–1900
*1697 – St Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt to the design of Sir Christopher Wren follow ...
, depending on the year.
Cyber Monday has become the online equivalent to
Black Friday and offers a way for smaller retail websites to compete with larger chains. Since its inception, it has become an international marketing term used by online retailers around the world.
The shopping event, which originated in 1950 with retail stores lowering prices and extending hours, evolved into a global online phenomenon in 2000, boasting one of the highest worldwide sales, and subsequently inspired the creation of Cyber Monday in 2005. According to the Shop.org/
Bizrate
Connexity Inc. is a privately held Los Angeles operator of shopping web sites, including Shopzilla.com. Originally started as comparison shopping website Bizrate.com, the company changed its name to Shopzilla in 2004, and changed again to Con ...
Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, "77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)".
In 2017, Cyber Monday online sales grew to a record of $6.59 billion, compared with $2.98 billion in 2015, and $2.65 billion in 2014. However, the average order value was $128, down slightly from 2014's $160. The Cyber Monday on November 30, 2020, (the first during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
) was the biggest online shopping day in US history with a total of $10.7 billion in online spending.
History
The term "Cyber Monday" was coined by
Ellen Davis, and was first used within the
ecommerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile comm ...
community during the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the head of Shop.org, the term was coined based on 2004 research showing "one of the biggest online shopping days of the year" was the Monday after Thanksgiving (12th-biggest day historically). Retailers also noted the most significant shopping period was December 5 through 15 of the previous year. In late November 2005, ''The New York Times'' reported: "The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked."
At the time, a lot of people had slow Internet at home. The idea for having such a holiday was created by Tony Valado, in 2003 while working at
1800Flowers.com, and coined "White Wednesday" to be the day before Thanksgiving for online retailers.
In countries
Australia
Beginning at 7 pm
AEDT on November 20 in 2012, Australian online retailers decided to hold a similar event for the first time, dubbed "
Click Frenzy". Many websites immediately crashed, went offline, or had major server issues, including the Click Frenzy promotion website. David Jones, a major retailer, ran a competing sale dubbed '
Christmas Frenzy' on the same date.
Belgium
In Belgium, Cyber Monday has gained popularity since 2016. Due to efforts off several major online shops launching large Cyber Monday campaigns, the average revenue during Cyber Monday has increased with 50% compared to the 2015 edition.
Canada
Cyber Monday came to Canada in 2008.
The ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only. '' featured an article published on November 25, 2010, stating that the parity of the Canadian dollar with the
US dollar
The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...
caused many Canadian retailers to have
Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales of their own. According to the article, an estimated 80% of Canadians were expected to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
[.] Speculation has been made that with all major US television broadcasters—which are typically available to Canadians—emphasizing Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales for stores that are also doing business in Canada, Canadian retailers needed to mimic sales offerings in order to keep Canadian dollars from being spent in the US.
By 2011, around 80% of online retailers in Canada were participating in Cyber Monday.
[Canadian retailers fight back against Black Friday deals](_blank)
, Toronto Start 2012
Chile
Chile's first Cyber Monday took place on November 28, 2011. The companies participating in the event are participants in the Santiago Chamber of Commerce's Electronic Commerce Committee. In 2015 the Chilean Cyber Monday had 85 stores participating, 390.000 transactions and US$83 million in sales. 36% of that was mobile. In 2016 Cyber Monday will be held on November 7. 140 companies are registered as official partners.
Colombia
The first Cyber Monday in Colombia took place on November 26, 2012. It was organized by the Colombian Chamber of Electronic Commerce and sponsored by the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications.
France
Inspired by the US phenomenon, the term Cyber Monday was first used in France in 2008.
Germany
Amazon.de announced that it brought Cyber Monday to Germany in 2010.
As of 2014, amazon.de continues to advertise Cyber Monday and has extended it to an 8-day period ("Cyber Monday week") beginning on the Monday before
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
.
India
India got its own version of the Cyber Monday (
Great Online Shopping Festival) on December 12, 2012 when
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
India partnered with many e-commerce companies including
Flipkart
Flipkart Inc. is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories such as con ...
,
Snapdeal
Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce company, based in New Delhi, India. It was founded in February 2010 by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.
Snapdeal is one of the top 5 online marketplaces in India. Snapdeal targets the value e-commerce segment, w ...
,
HomeShop18,
Indiatimes shopping, and
MakeMyTrip. Google said that this was the first time an industry-wide initiative of this scale was undertaken.
In November 2015, Google announced that the event would not be repeated.
Japan
Amazon.co.jp announced it registered as Cyber Monday with Japan Anniversary Association in 2012. Amazon.co.jp ran the Cyber Monday Seven Day Sale from December 10 through December 16, 2012.
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the term Cyber Monday was first used in 2012. Since then, Dutch online retailers have taken advantage of Cyber Monday in promotional purposes, because it is perfectly timed before the celebration of
Sinterklaas
Sinterklaas () or Sint-Nicolaas () is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include ''De Sint'' ("The Saint"), ''De Goede Sint'' ("The Good Saint") and ''De Goedheiligman'' (derive ...
which is celebrated by buying gifts for each other in Netherlands. Since 2012, the popularity of Cyber Monday has grown strongly every year in the Netherlands. In total there were 105 participating online stores during the Cyber Monday period of 2017. During Cyber Monday 2019 the total of shops increased with 40 to 189 shops in total
New Zealand
Online retailer Belly Beyond held the first Cyber Monday Sale in New Zealand on November 29, 2010.
The sale lasted for five days, from Monday to Friday.
Poland
In the past few years, Cyber Monday has become more popular in Poland. Now 52% of poles participate in shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Portugal
In Portugal, the term Cyber Monday was first used in 2009.
Romania
In Romania, Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Black Friday, which is held by the biggest retailers one week before the US Black Friday.
Sweden
In Sweden, Cyber Monday is growing rapidly and several of the largest online retailers regularly launch Cyber Monday campaigns. Cyber Monday was first established on larger online retailers in Sweden 2010.
United Kingdom
According to a 2009 ''The Guardian'' article, UK online retailers are now referring to "Cyber Monday" as the busiest internet shopping day of the year that commonly falls on the same day as the US Cyber Monday.
United States
In 2006,
comScore
Comscore, Inc. is an American-based global media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, advertising agencies, brand marketers, and publishers.
History
Comscore was founded in July 1999 in Resto ...
reported that online spending on Cyber Monday jumped 25% to $608 million,
21% to $733 million in 2007,
and 15% to $846 million in 2008.
In 2009, comScore reported that online spending increased five percent on Cyber Monday to $887 million and that more than half of dollars spent online at US Web sites originated from work computers (52.7 percent), representing a gain of 2.3 percentage points from last year.
Buying from home comprised the majority of the remaining share (41.6 percent) while buying from international locations accounted for 5.8 percent. According to comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, "comScore data have shown that Cyber Monday online sales have always been driven by considerable buying activity from work locations. That pattern hasn't changed. After returning from the long Thanksgiving weekend with a lot of holiday shopping still ahead of them, many consumers tend to continue their holiday shopping from work. Whether to take advantage of the extensive Cyber Monday deals offered by retailers or to buy gifts away from the prying eyes of family members, this day has become an annual ritual for America's online holiday shoppers."
In 2010, comScore reported the first-ever $1 billion online shopping day ($1028M), an increase of 16 percent over 2009. In 2011, comScore reported that Cyber Week saw US consumers spend over $6 billion online from November 28 to December 2.
In 2012, comScore reported that Cyber Monday saw a 16% increase in sales from 2011, totaling $1.5 billion.
In 2013, Cyber Monday sales continued their growth and recorded their highest grossing day ever at $2.29 billion.
In 2014, the average planned expenditure was $361 per person. 46 percent of people expected to pay with credit cards and 43 percent expected to pay with debit cards. Sales were up 8.1%, according to IBM Digital Analytics. The average order was $131.66, flat with the preceding year, though the number of transactions was up and people were buying more items on average per order.
In 2016, according to Adobe Digital Insights, Cyber Monday hit a new record with $3.45 billion, and was the first time that online sales in one single day surpassed $3 billion. The numbers went up 12.1% from the previous year.
In 2018, according to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday hit a record $7.9 billion of online spending, which was a 19.3% increase from a year previous.
In 2019, according to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday mobile transactions totaled $3.1 billion with total online sales reaching a record $9.4 billion.
See also
*
Cyber Black Friday
*
Green Monday
*
Black Friday (shopping)
Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving (United States), Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season and is the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. Many stores ...
*
Buy Nothing Day
*
Small Business Saturday
Small Business Saturday is a marketing initiative created and promoted by American Express to encourage holiday shopping on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the United States, during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. This Satu ...
*
Super Saturday (Panic Saturday)
*
Giving Tuesday
*
Singles' Day
Singles' Day () or Double 11 () is an unofficial Chinese holiday for people who are not in a relationship. The date, 11 November (11/11), was chosen because the numeral 1 resembles a bare stick (), Chinese Internet slang for an unmarried man. ...
References
{{Christmas
E-commerce in the United States
Unofficial observances
2000s neologisms
2004 neologisms
Christmas economics
Monday observances
Observances based on the date of Thanksgiving (United States)
Sales and clearances
sah:Cyber Monday