The most important period in the retail calendar, online and offline, is upon us and many business owners will be crossing their fingers, hoping that it proves to be a successful one.
For online shops especially the four days following Thanksgiving are the busiest in terms of the number of online sales made. This is largely due to the fact that we are only a month away from Christmas and many of us will be scouring the web for presents.
But the fact that the Monday following this weekend would be this popular among shoppers may not be so obvious to most. It is however so big in terms of the amounts spent over the web that it is now widely known as Cyber Monday.
It has become popular among online shoppers mainly because of the fact that a lot of retailers would offer massive discounts on this day. This trend, which originally started in the U.S., has now spread over to Europe and customers in the UK are fast becoming accustomed to it too. Even though the Thanksgiving Day holiday is not celebrated on these shores, the tradition of launching online sales during this period has made a smooth transition to our online retail scene.
For many sellers the last two months of the year are the time when they make the majority of their profits. At a time when many high-street shops have suffered, their online rivals have had a much easier time and it is expected that the Christmas rush will make this divide even more visible.
Many recent polls have shown that a growing number of UK consumers will this year purchase gifts over the Internet. Cyber Monday is an event which will largely contribute to this trend. Last year online sales on this day were worth just over $1 billion (first time ever in the history of e-retail) and this figure is fully expected to be beaten this year. With two of the largest online retailers in the country already giving us taste of the offers and deals which are about to come this Cyber Monday it is easy to see why consumers here would follow the example set by their American friends.