With the advent of online shopping, “Cyber Monday” has quickly become just as important to many shoppers as Black Friday.

Join us for part two of our In the black Turkey Feed!
Monday 10:45am – Ryan

I’ve been catching up on news from midnight. Here are a few of the more interesting gems:

• It looks like one of this year’s hot holiday items will be the Kindle, despite there being a number of other e-reader products on the market. It’s sold more units in November than in its entire lifespan making it Amazon’s best-selling product (and that’s inclusive of all categories) and right now, it’s the top item across all categories.
• Newsweek has predicted that Cyber Monday will out-do Black Friday this year despite the fact that top-dollar online shopping isn’t always on Monday as our Cyber Monday Prediction post has pointed out.
• As the CBC (a Canadian news organization) reports, preliminary figures are showing that this year’s Black Friday was increased from last year by a little bit.

“According to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak, a research firm that tracks more than 50,000 U.S. outlets, sales rose 0.5 per cent to $10.66 billion US Friday, compared with a year ago. That was on top of a three per cent increase last year.

Online sales Thursday and Friday rose 11 per cent to $913 million, according to data released Sunday by comScore, an internet research firm. Online business got a big boost as stores pushed online promotions the week leading into the weekend.”

So, what will the rest of the day hold? What are you seeing out there yourselves?  let us know on our community forums, or leave a comment!

Monday 11:00am – Ryan

One of our community members (thanks RonDesign!) posted a link to some interesting Black Friday / Cyber Monday facts and Myths. It was a pretty interesting read so I thought I’d share it!

Monday 11:15am – Ryan

I was sent a question via PM on the forums asking me how Cyber Monday came to be. I did a bit of research and found out some interesting information that I felt was worth sharing.

Back in the dark ages of the internet (aka: “the dial-up days”) Folks who were unable to take advantage of all the amazing in-store deals would wait to do their shopping from the office because:

• Dial-up is slow
• There used to be a fear that dial-up was less secure than high-speed
• Most companies had high speed internet

What’s interesting is that the seasonal online sales spike doesn’t always happen on Monday. There are a number of complicated theories as to why, but my personal theory is simple. The Monday after the thanksgiving holiday weekend is filled with all the work and e-mails that stacked up while folks were out of the office.

Will this year’s “Cyber Monday” actually be a “Cyber Tuesday” as has happened in the past? Only time will tell!

Monday 11:30am – Kate

I read a bizarre article this morning. The author argued that Cyber Monday is a fictitious holiday- that it is merely a marketing term, which was coined back in the day when people needed the high speed internet of their workplace to shop because their home internet was too slow and now has lingered on because of the pressure from devious marketers. I argue that that is totally bogus, for the following reasons:

1. The majority of people do have high speed internet at home now, but that does not necessarily mean that they are going to take advantage of it to do their holiday shopping at home. There are a good number of people who will wait until Cyber Monday to shop because they can do so on their company’s dime. This is not particularly ethical, but anonymous studies have revealed that tons of people nation-wide do it every year.
2. A lot of people travel for the Thanksgiving holiday (which is why the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year), and while smart phones are becoming more popular, many travelers are left without internet while returning from their holiday destinations, which forces them to have to wait until they into the office on Monday to get started on their holiday shopping.
3. For many people, the office is where they spend the majority of their waking hours, so it makes sense that they would shop from work on lunches and breaks.

Tell us what you think! Is Cyber Monday an old relic from the days of dial-up or is it thriving like always?

Monday 12:15pm – Ryan

To add to what Kate said, because consumers started the Cyber Monday trend, retailers have responded in the only way they can. By offering special Black Friday-like deals!

As Kate outlined above, the reasons that Cyber Monday is so huge are many and varied. I believe that this is a case of companies taking advantage of a consumer trend, rather than them manufacturing a consumer “shopiday.”

To capitalize on this consumer trend, If you’re a store-owner, you may want to consider running one/two/three or even four hour specials.

Monday 2:05pm – Kate

Good news! according to the Wall Street Journal Cyber Monday is doing better than expected: “‘All indications are that Cyber Monday will be a strong day across the industry,’ said Fiona Dias, the executive vice president of strategy and marketing for GSI. The early signs of a strong online shopping day on Monday follow a report by comScore Inc. that U.S. online shoppers spent $595 million on Black Friday- up 11% from last year… Cyber Monday sales could exceed $900 million this year… Cyber Monday sales last year were $846 million, with the potential $900 million in sales this year representing a 6% increase.”

If you’ve been busy processing orders all day make sure to set aside a few minutes to leave a comment below letting our readers know what your best deals are for Cyber Monday this year!

Monday 4:50pm – Ryan

I was hoping to have some facts and figures to share by the end of the day today, but sadly, I haven’t been able to find any hard final numbers. With the rest of the week ahead of us, I expect that sales and usage information will be available soon.

Tuesday 9:15am – Kate

The numbers are in! Here are some stats from Coremetrics:

• Cyber Monday continued the momentum set by Black Friday. Sales were up 24.1% compared to Black Friday 2009.
• Consumers spent more per online order ($180.03 versus $170.19 for an increase of 5.8%) compared to Black Friday 2009.
• Sales were up 13.7% compared to Cyber Monday 2008.
• The average dollar amount consumers spent per online order rose 38.2 percent from Cyber Monday 2008 ($180.03 versus $130.24), led by apparel retailers.
• Consumers bought nearly 10% more items per order on Cyber Monday 2009 compared to Black Friday 2009 and nearly 30% more compared to Cyber Monday 2008.
• Consumer shopping hit its peak from 9-10 a.m. PST, but maintained stronger momentum throughout the day than on Cyber Monday 2008.

Thank you very much for joining us this year as we live blogged through the official kickoff of the holiday shopping season! Happy Holidays everyone!