Online Retailers Braced For A Manic Cyber Monday
After a poor financial year in the UK, Online Retailers are hoping for a lucrative Cyber Monday as shoppers flock online to buy their seasonal gifts.Cyber Monday, one of the most recent American ideas to cross the Atlantic, was originally conceived as a way of competing with the chaos of Black Friday, a major day for American retailers.
This year Cyber Monday has extra significance, with sales falling last month by 0.2% from last November according to BDO’s high street sales tracker – a drop partly due to adverse weather conditions.
Online shopping figures, however, are up 26% compared to last year, with credit card company Visa expecting the increase in online sales to continue: Visa are predicting 6.8 million transactions worth in the region of £320 million this Cyber Monday.
"A combination of pay day for the majority of consumers falling on the last Friday of the month and a weekend spent browsing the shops results in shoppers logging on to buy their gifts online on the subsequent Monday,” said a Visa spokesperson, "All of these factors will result in consumers spending £222,222 per minute, making 4722 transactions every 60 seconds."
Online retailer Amazon’s Chris North cites improving internet software on mobile devices and at home as a key factor in the increase of online sales:
“Monday 3 December could be the busiest day in the history of Amazon.co.uk",” said the company’s managing director, “As people increasingly shop on mobile devices and benefit from fast broadband at home, we’re seeing a move towards customers buying their Christmas gifts later in the evening when they are at home relaxing.”
A number of websites are even offering deals specific to Cyber Monday, though not to the extent done in America, where there is a special website, www.cybermonday.com, with hundreds of deals available.
This is Cyber Monday’s fourth year in the UK, after it was introduced on 30th November 2009, but all signs point to it being the most successful ever.
Have you bought anything on Cyber Monday?
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Will Sigsworth
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www.socialmediafrontiers.com
Online Retailers Braced For A Manic Cyber Monday
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Monday, December 03, 2012
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Monday, December 03, 2012
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