Cyber Monday Grows Up and Becomes Serious

If you’ve been in the online marketing and advertising game for a few years, you remember the buzz surrounding the notion of “Cyber Monday” a few years ago.  We weren’t completely sure of the metrics or the sustainability of the buzz, but we knew something exciting was happening in the online retail and shopping space that would transform the way we do business in the increasingly critical month of December.

Now it seems that the notion of Cyber Monday has matured into a serious market force.  The NY Times has coverage of the big day with mentions of familiar companies such as FatWallet, UPromise (why does UPromise get a link and not FatWallet, btw??), Ice.com and HSN.com:

TWO years ago, Cyber Monday was a marketing gimmick in search of shoppers. This year, it seems to be a genuine trend that retailers have embraced.

In a survey of roughly 120 members of Shop.org, the trade group for online retailers, nearly three-quarters said they would offer discounts today for Cyber Monday, as the first Monday after Thanksgiving has become known. Shop.org said 32 percent of adults surveyed last week said they would shop online on Cyber Monday, up from 27 percent in 2006.

Doug Hart, an analyst at BDO Seidman, an accounting and consulting firm, said Cyber Monday sales would account for about 12 percent of the expected $39 billion in online revenue this holiday season. That is similar to the 15 percent share of holiday sales recorded by offline retailers on the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, he said.

So, here’s a toast to everyone’s success on this Cyber Monday 2007.  Eventually, Cyber Monday will seem as quaint and accepted as Black Friday, but to see this sort of validation from the mainstream media after all these years is a nice step forward for the online revenue industry.  Whether Cyber Monday will be driven by direct affiliates or loyalty programs is a whole other can of worms that we’ll be exploring later…