What’s tomorrow, Tag Sale Tuesday?
What’s with all this Cyber Monday bullshit? Is everyone in the media just buying into this manufactured gimmick?
Washington Post: “Retailers hope to hook shoppers online with Cyber Monday sales”
Wall Street Journal: “Cyber Monday Sales Appear Strong”
New York Times: “How to Tell if a Cyber Monday Sale is a Good Deal”
ABC News: “Cyber Monday Deals: Five Online Shopping Tips”
You can find literally thousands of examples of news organizations drinking the Flavor-Aid and buying into the Cyber Monday “holiday,” which was created just four years ago by a branch of the National Retail Federation. The idea was that on the Monday after “Black Friday,” millions of shoppers worn out and/or disappointed by their weekend shopping excursions would turn to their computers in search of holiday sales—so why not create a name for the day and give the media a “hook” on which to hang their stories?
I just clicked on the official Cyber Monday site, which is brimming with ads from online retailers such as Borders, eToys, Sony, Dell, you name it. A helpful clock tells me I have just 42 minutes and counting to click on the eToys ad (“Childhood dreams delivered”) if I want to “Save up to 50% on the hottest toys during the eToys CyberMonday Sale!”
Woohoo!!!!
Interestingly, Cyber Monday has never been the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season—–but then again, Black Friday isn’t usually the biggest “regular” shopping day of the season. Black Friday is often the busiest in terms of foot traffic, but the biggest shopping day is usually the last Saturday before Christmas, or the last Friday before Christmas if Dec. 25th falls on a weekend.
Great piece on \”The Myth of Cyber Monday\”
Some Cyber Monday proponents say it was never intended to be marketed as the biggest online shopping day of the year, though that may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it’s supposed to be the kickoff to the online holiday shopping season, not the ultimate shopping day.
Does it matter any more? For the rest of our lives, the media will be doing Monday-after-Thanksgiving stories about sales on “Cyber Monday.”
According to the online marketing firm Coremetrics, online sales in the U.S. today are up 16 percent from last year as of late afternoon.
Oh. In that case, maybe I am a fan of Cyber Monday. As much as I resent these manufactured gimmicks, especially when much of the media just runs with it without question because it fills space on a slow news day, anything that gives a charge to the economy and might lead to people getting jobs or keeping jobs—-I’m all for that.
Let’s see what they’re asking for “Lost: The Complete Fifth Season” on Blu-ray over at amazon.com, I know someone who would love that…
November 30th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
that sure was a positive posting…
December 1st, 2009 at 10:02 am
If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 am
I don’t know what the big deal about ‘cyber-monday’ is either; the best day to shop is actually the saturday after thanksgiving; many of the ‘black friday’ deals are still available, the stores open early and the stores are much less crowded.