Cyber Monday was started in 2005 by a marketing team at Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation. The purpose is to provide online retailers the opportunity to catch great deals without having to enter the brick-and-mortar shopping frenzy. At that time, it was not the busiest online shopping day of the year.
However, this year more millennials plan on skipping Black Friday shopping to shop straight from their mobile devices on Cyber Monday.
According to the NRF, more than 164 million U.S. consumers will shop over the Thanksgiving weekend. Black Friday is becoming less and less crucial to shoppers as sales start before Thanksgiving and stretch well beyond Thanksgiving week. Buyers are now more liable to make their purchases online rather than fight with deal-hunting crowds.
For the first time, in 2015, more people shopped online rather than in stores, according to the NRF. This year, 40 percent of consumers surveyed said they plan on doing all or most of their Black Friday shopping on the web.
Cyber Monday is the largest and fastest growing online shopping day in the U.S. Sales on Cyber Monday are anticipated to grow this year, bringing in an estimated $7.8 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.
Black Friday sales start as early as 5 a.m., with people lining up hours before stores open. Cyber Monday means you can wake up on your own time and still score some great deals. Comparing deals is also easier with online shopping with just a click of a new tab.
Shopping online also guarantees a safe and confrontation-free experience and you’re certain to get the products you want. Black Friday shopping means limited quantity of discounted items, which results in shopping becoming a competition. Every year Americans hear of horror stories of passionate shoppers fighting, trampling or worse just to purchase low-priced items.
“Cyber Monday allows me to shop from the comfort of my own home, as opposed to fighting the lines in stores on Black Friday. Over the last few years, Cyber Monday has grown in popularity so online sites have begun running deals that are comparable, if not better, than those on the previous Friday,” said senior business administration major Sydney Clark.
Cyber Monday has spread to other nations such as the England, Canada, France and Portugal.