I spent all Cyber Weekend working on, well, Cyber Weekend coverage and analysis. So I was a little tired when I went to a staff meeting on Cyber Monday morning.
And I guess I need to apologize to whichever coworker said she heard Cyber Monday was dead because, basically, I laughed in her face. Hysterically. Like a hyena.
[CLICK HERE for Multichannel Merchant’s Cyber Weekend 2013 coverage]
When I calmed down, I assured her that Cyber Monday was not dead.
Now that it’s Tuesday, I have the data to back that up.
Adobe reported record Cyber Monday sales. IBM reported record Cyber Monday sales. comScore reported record Cyber Monday Sales. Rumors of Cyber Monday’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
“Any notion that Cyber Monday is declining in importance appears to be completely unfounded,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “While it’s true that many retailers are bleeding their Cyber Monday promotions into the weekend before and the days afterward, Cyber Monday itself continues to be the most important day of the online holiday shopping season.”
Fulgoni added that comScore saw evidence of early promotions pulling some dollars forward into the weekend, so it is possible that Cyber Monday could have even been stronger were it not for the emergence of this trend.
comScore said Cyber Monday reached $1.735 billion in desktop online spending, up 18%. IBM said Cyber Monday the biggest online shopping day in history with a 20.6% increase in online sales.
Adobe said Cyber Monday ecommerce sales increased by 16% year-over-year to $2.29 billion. A record 18.3% of sales came from mobile devices, an increase of 80% year-over-year that no one even thought possible when Cyber Monday was born in 2005.
I can understand people thinking Cyber Monday’s end is near. Cyber Monday began in a time and place where accessing the Internet at home was usually accompanied by a deep male voice proclaiming, “You’ve got mail!” Home Internet speeds weren’t anywhere near as great as it was in the office so, of course, those who were tethered to their desks took advantage and shopped while they worked.
Now that high speed Internet is everywhere, and merchants offer online deals all Cyber Weekend (and the week after Thanksgiving, in some cases), The death of Cyber Monday would make sense.
But as long as merchants offer Cyber Monday deals, and consumers show their willingness to buy online the Monday after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday will never go away.
[CLICK HERE for Multichannel Merchant’s Cyber Weekend 2013 coverage]