The History of Cyber Monday

Answer 1

Referring to the first Monday after the American Thanksgiving holiday, the expression "Cyber Monday" was first used during the 2005 season by Shop.org, a sector of the National Retail Federation. It is important to know that this organization did not invent Cyber Monday, but merely gave a name to this retail phenomenon. The federation was the first to draw public attention to the high sales figures from prior after-Thanksgiving Monday online purchases.

Popularity

At first it was an interesting slang mainly used in e-commerce circles, but the phrase quickly became main stream by the end of that season. One of the early public mentions was in the New York Times edition at the end of November 2005, when it reported the observation of shoppers taking advantage of internet connections at work to buy what they saw on Black Friday.

Of course not all shopping on Cyber Monday takes place at work, but since many people have to get back to the office after a long weekend they use this opportunity. Not only does it give workers extra time to get a lot of holiday shopping done, but it is easy to buy gifts away from family members in order to surprise them.

Sales Figures

Cyber Monday sales have steadily increased every year. The biggest jump was in 2007 when sales increased by 20 percent over the previous year. According to comScore they reached over $1 billion in 2010, although the year before, Cyber Monday sales only increased by 5 percent.

Deals

Retailers cash in on this trend with special Cyber Monday offers like free shipping in addition to big discounts. Many stores also try to reel in first time shoppers with offers specifically geared towards newcomers. Countless websites offer online coupons and compile long lists of stores and websites with the best deals.

Turn on the TV around Thanksgiving and you can't get away from the term. Before Cyber Monday, commercials will use the term to advertise deals, while after Monday, news stations will report on statistics and profits.