In our last post we credited the internet for popularizing an easier way of shopping on Black Friday. With that being said, Black Friday itself can be credited for spinning off another retail holiday known as Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday is a relatively new concept and may be unknown to the average consumer and those outside of the marketing world. The term "Cyber Monday" was invented by Shop.org and was first used during the 2005 holiday season. The term was coined after seeing a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004. This increase in sales is believed to be the result of the millions of Americans who returned to work that Monday to faster internet connections, being able to make their online purchases.
Seeing this huge spike in ecommerce, marketers took advantage of what happened in 2004 and created a buzz for online shopping and what would become Cyber Monday in 2005. Since then, online retailers have been offering all kinds of special deals, many of which are available only for the Monday following Black Friday.
The term "Cyber Monday" and what happens on this day, has become so popular that even online retailers in countries such as Canada, the UK, Portugal and Germany use this marketing term and participate in special deals.
So if you missed out on that big screen TV on Black Friday, there's always Monday!