Black Friday online sales – Cyber Monday comes early
Black Friday has been and gone, and the results from retailers are starting to come in. But it seems on first sight that online retailers have done much better than expected, with sales up on last year despite the economic downturn. Has Cyber Monday come early, or is this holiday season going to be less bleak than first thought?
Being British and not in the mood to battle hordes of rampaging idiots in search of a bargain, I’m not a fan of Black Friday. It’s really not my cup of tea to fight past other usually civilized human beings in order to grab the last cheap Xbox 360 on the shelf of Best Buy. Maybe I’m just a big girl’s blouse and need to grow some more hair on my chest.
Thankfully, there is an alternative to actually going out and braving the crowds, and it involves nothing more than sitting in your front room drinking coffee. I am of course talking about online shopping, and it’s an increasingly important factor for Black Friday and the rest of the holiday season.
Reuters reports how Amazon and eBay saw big jumps in sales on Black Friday, despite both predicting poor results due to the biting recession. It seems that when faced with an economy on the slide, consumers are increasingly turning to the Web in order to grab a bargain.
PayPal, the eBay owned online payment system, saw transactions rise by around 34 percent on Black Friday 2008 than Black Friday 2007. Amazon.com and Shopping.com also reported healthy sales. This all comes in advance of Cyber Monday, the Monday after Black Friday when people return to work and use their faster office connections to buy bargains they’ve spotted over the weekend.
But what people are looking to buy? Amazon stated that the Apple iPod touch was the top-seller on Friday, followed by the Canon PowerShot camera. Still greatly in demand, and leading in the video games category were the Nintendo Wii and Wii Fit. The Wii was also the most searched for item on eBay.
I’d suggest that Cyber Monday may now be a thing of the past due to people increasingly having faster and more stable Broadband Internet connections at home, meaning the office is now no longer necessary for shopping.
As for whether these impressive results point to a miscasting of the state of the economy and consumers willingness to buy remains to be seen. It could actually confirm the dire predictions by showing that more people are searching for a bargain than ever before, and are willing to venture online to get the cheapest price possible.
Related Posts:
September 2nd, 2009
Interesting article.
I´ve never been at “black fridays” because eventhough there are smokin´deals in some retail stores, I hate the crowd and I´m not willing to stay overnight waiting the store to be opened.
Based on this article, I would like to know if the prices/bargaing that are in store can be found also in website stores?, for instance: does wal-mart or bestbuy have “black friday” prices on their on-line store?.
Thanks.