Thanksgiving Day shopping was either a big success or a huge failure, depending on who you listen to. And both sides are correct for different reasons, but just as Black Friday creep jump started the holiday season, Cyber Monday is starting earlier and lasting longer, too.
Big box retailers reported strong early numbers for Black Friday sales, but it's the online statistics that really jumped, and this bodes well for Cyber Monday and the rest of the season.
Cyber Monday now starts on Sunday as more retailers try to get a head start on this popular online shopping event.
A recent Cyber Monday survey by FatWallet revealed that 26% of shoppers will start looking for deals on Sunday and another 32% during the remainder of the week.
“Early sales are now part of the pop culture of major online retail events, making Sunday the lead in for Cyber Monday,” said FatWallet’s Brent Shelton
And retailers are expected to extend Cyber Monday throughout the week. Walmart has already announced it would do just that its new Cyber Week stretch of staggered deals. Amazon, too, got a head start on Cyber Monday and will roll out deals for a full eight days.
Cyber Monday deals aren’t just online only anymore. Walmart is allowing online orders to be collected in stores on the same day. The program kicked off on Saturday and same-day pickup more than doubled year-over-year, according to Walmart.
The message for shoppers this year is that the deals will keep coming, but retailers have gotten smarter about what discounts they are offer and when. Instead of waiting and slashing prices as the season wears on — and there will certainly be some of that — retailers have gotten much smarter and plans more detailed, thanks to Big Data.
Thus far, Holiday 2014 is progressing in an incredibly orderly fashion and there’s little reason to think these planned events, staggered deals and online offers with some in-store component won’t continue throughout the season.
