cyber monday

From noon to 4 p.m. ET, everyone who goes to the MLB.com Shop can take 20 percent off the total order. It is going to be a big day for holiday shopping all over the Internet, and baseball fans tend to know what they want.

You want a good ballpark dog and a World Series championship.

You want to find incredible holiday gifts and incredible savings.

This is the day on the calendar known since 2005 as "Cyber Monday" -- a day when many people return to their office computers following a long Thanksgiving break and jump into the online holiday shopping boom. This four-hour sale is one way to celebrate that, and it also will be just the start of something unique here.

It will be like the ultimate ceremonial first pitch for baseball shoppers, followed by 16 days of sales called "Hits for the Holidays" at the MLB.com Shop. Start with this monster sale and then look on Tuesday for the gradual rollout.

Judging by the early returns, this may be an even bigger day than expected. Retail spending on the Internet during the Thanksgiving weekend was up markedly from a year ago, according to data compiled by comScore Inc. Online spending was higher over the actual holiday, up 29 percent to $272 million from last year's Thanksgiving Day. For so-called Black Friday, ecommerce sales amounted to $531 million, a 22-percent gain from 2006. ComScore expects "Cyber Monday," the first workday after the holiday weekend, to post sales exceeding $700 million.

"Consumers will continue to shift more of their holiday gift spending from stores to sites this year," Jeffrey Grau, a senior analyst for eMarketer, wrote in a recent report. He said figures show the trend toward online shopping "will insulate retail ecommerce from the economic jitters expected to dampen retail industry sales during the critical months of November and December." According to eMarketer data, online holiday sales are expected to total $31 billion compared with $26.2 billion last year.

It will seem like just about everyone is at the store on Monday at the MLB.com Shop, only you won't realize it, of course. It is the ultimate in convenience, no long lines, no square-footage restrictions for stock, no grouchy cashiers or patrons, just you trying to decide how to make the most of that 20-percent off today.

According to Wikipedia, this is the origin of "Cyber Monday:"

"The term 'Cyber Monday' is a neologism invented by Shop.org, part of the U.S. trade association National Retail Federation. It was first used within the ecommerce community during the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the head of Shop.org, the term was coined based on research showing that 77 percent of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004."

As far as the name itself, we seem to be kind of stuck with that, even though it suggests days of Enron or sock puppet mascots and 56K modem connections. But as long as there's a 20 percent off sale, do you really care? Maybe we could at least agree on shortening it to "Cy Monday" going forward? After all, baseball fans -- who just shattered the overall Major League Baseball regular season attendance record with 78 million strong -- comprise a big part (maybe most?) of that consumer sector. We're into nicknames and "Cy" is universally known to all fans.

Denton True "Cy" Young. He won 511 games, and C.C. Sabathia and Jake Peavy just won the major pitching awards in his honor for their respective leagues. If you go to the MLB.com Shop between noon and 4, you will be able to find a Highland Mint Cleveland Indians Cy Young Gold Coin Photo Mint featuring two 24-karat gold coins. It sells for $89.99, so you will be able to chop 18 bucks off that price during the Cy Monday Sale.

And speaking of Highland Mint, you also can find a Gold and Color Team Commemorative Coin for every club -- for only $19.99 before knocking the 20 percent off. It is perhaps the greatest stocking stuffer ever, a must this afternoon.

There is more memorabilia galore at the MLB.com Shop, and 20 percent off is a good reason to consider now, especially considering the high value of some of those items.

You probably didn't really just drop off of the face of the Earth over the last four days. But whether you have been staying wired or whether you are just resurfacing online, the four-hour sale is not something you are going to want to miss.

Cy Monday is here, and then it is going to be one unbelievable savings promotion after another for your budget over this next month. Happy shopping. edition | Subscribe to the paper Rocky Mountain NewsHome News Business Sports Entertainment Living Outdoors Opinion Multimedia Your Space Jobs Autos Homes Classifieds Shop Local Nation World Weather Traffic Education Politics Obituaries Special Reports Columns & Blogs Tech & Telecom Money & Markets Airlines & Aerospace Real Estate Energy Health Care Retail Skiing & Tourism More Business Special Reports Columns & Blogs Broncos Avalanche Nuggets Rockies Rapids College Fantasy Sports Racing Olympics Golf More Sports Rocky Preps Special Reports Columns & Blogs Movies TV Music Art & Architecture Theater Dining Nightlife Books Fun & Games Events More Entertainment Special Reports Columns & Blogs Health & Fitness Fashion Food Home & Garden More Living Special Reports Columns & Blogs Mountain Activities Escapes Hunting & Fishing Skiing & Snowboarding Camping Hiking More Outdoors Special Reports Editorials Letters to the Editor Speakout Poll Archive Special Reports Columns & Blogs Photo Archive Photo Galleries Video Audio & Podcasts Special Reports Front Page Gallery Your Photos Your Votes Polls YourHub.com
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Say goodbye to the lines - Cyber Monday brings deals home
Online retailers offer big discounts today
By Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
星期一, 十一月 26, 2007
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Email this Print this Comments Change text size Subscribe to print edition iPod friendly Share this site Del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Now that you're through the first round of post-Thanksgiving sales, it's time for Cyber Monday - the Internet version of Black Friday.

Today, online retailers in Colorado and nationally are offering an unprecedented number of discounts, special deals, one-day sales and free shipping offers.

Shop.org, the national association for online retailers, coined the term Cyber Monday in 2005, after noticing a trend of consumers shopping on the Internet the Monday after Thanksgiving.

BusinessWeek magazine quickly weighed in, calling Cyber Monday a "marketing myth" representing only the 12th-biggest online shopping day of the year.

It may not be the biggest online shopping day, but Cyber Monday is gaining momentum, with e-commerce companies now marking the day with special promotions. Cyber Monday accounted for $608 million of sales in 2006, up 25 percent from $484 million the year before, according to ComScore Networks.

"That media hype really gets people thinking about the holidays," said Laila Mahmud, public relations coordinator for Denver-based eBags.com, an online bag and luggage retailer.

Mahmud said eBags' peak selling days tend to fall during the second week of December. But Cyber Monday is a strong sales day, too, she said, with consumers often starting to do their online research and shopping - sometimes at work - "based on what they saw at the bricks and mortar" stores on Black Friday.

This holiday season, eBags has a partnership with PayPal that enables consumers to delay payments by 90 days, which may be attractive for those purchasing high-end luggage, Mahmud said. EBags also is planning 20 percent discounts on most items today and has been running a promotion for $25 off the next order.

Dave Carlson, chief executive officer of Centennial-based All AboardToys.com, also said the biggest online sales days tend to come between Dec. 3 and Dec. 10, hitting a peak about two weeks before Christmas. But he also takes Black Friday and Cyber Monday seriously, saying All AboardToys.com will be promoting one-day specials, Elmo giveaways and a $1,000 shopping spree.

AllAboardToys specializes in toys, clothing and bedding of popular characters such as the Care Bears, Disney Pixar Cars, Hannah Montana and Thomas the Tank Engine.

A key to attracting customers is to make sure the company is on Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, Carlson said, "so people looking for stuff online can find us."

The online retailer also decided for the first time this year to experiment with a 16-page direct-mail catalog for the holiday season.

"So far, so good," Carlson said.

Nationally, large chains such as Home Depot are putting a lot of effort into Cyber Monday.

"On Monday, we'll have special online deals for one day only," said Paula Drake, spokeswoman for the home-improvement products chain. "We did it last year (for the first time) and had the highest amount of traffic on that day of the entire year."

Even companies that don't focus on consumers are recognizing the value of promoting online holiday deals.

Boulder-based Organic Vintners, which sells organic wines, is offering $2 and $3 discounts for holiday wines promoted prominently on its Web site, Organic vintners.com.
The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Whereas Black Friday is associated with traditional brick-and-mortar stores, "Cyber Monday" symbolizes a busy day for online retailers. The premise was that consumers would return to their offices after the Black Friday weekend, making purchases online that they were not able to make in stores. The idea has not survived the test of time (see below), however, Cyber Monday has evolved into a significant marketing event, sponsored by the National Retail Federation's Shop.org division, in which online retailers offer low prices and promotions.

Contents
1 Origin of term
2 Accuracy
3 Criticism
4 Website
5 See also
6 References
7 External links



[edit] Origin of term
The term "Cyber Monday" is a neologism invented by Shop.org, part of the U.S. trade association National Retail Federation.[1]. It was first used within the ecommerce community during the 2005 holiday season. According to Scott Silverman, the head of Shop.org, the term was coined based on research showing that 77% of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004.[2]


[edit] Accuracy
In late November 2005, ComScore Networks, an e-commerce tracking firm, reported that online spending on Cyber Monday, excluding travel, was $485 million, a 26 percent increase from a year earlier. Total visits to shopping sites increased by 35 percent compared to a year earlier, according to Akamai Technologies.[3] In late 2005, after the holidays, ecommerce sites reported that the busiest shopping days usually were between December 5-15 in a given year.[1] For 2005, the year the term Cyber Monday was coined, the busiest online shopping day of the year in the U.S. was actually December 12, two weeks after "Cyber Monday".[4] Shop.org's survey of its members found that their busiest day in 2005 was December 12.[5] MasterCard's worldwide (not just U.S.) data for 2005 showed that the day with the highest amount of Web transactions processed was December 5.[5] In November 2006, prior to the holidays, MasterCard reported that an online survey it had commissioned found that only 10 percent of Americans said they would shop on the Web on Cyber Monday.[5]


[edit] Criticism
Some critics online and in the media have called for a boycott of the term, calling it a useless media buzzword with no basis in fact. Fark founder Drew Curtis critically mocks the term in his book It's Not News, It's Fark as a leading example of holiday-based "fluff journalism."[6]


[edit] Website
At the official "Cyber Monday" site, run by Shop.org, more than 500 retailers offered discounts for the 2007 holidays. As a Motley Fool article noted, many of these same deals can be found elsewhere. A percentage of the proceeds of the site benefits the Ray M. Greenly Scholarship Fund, which gives scholarships to students pursuing an education in e-commerce.[7]


[edit] See also
Black Friday
Boxing Day
Buy Nothing Day
Hallmark holiday

[edit] References
^ a b Hof, Robert D.. "Cyber Monday, Marketing Myth", Business Week, November 29, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
^ "After Black Friday comes Cyber Monday: The Monday after Thanksgiving is a big day for e-commerce; consumers will see more deals this year", CNN, November 28, 2005
^ Maryanne Murray Buechner, "How to Find the Best Shopping Online", Time magazine, November 28, 2005
^ Barbaro, Michael. "Internet Sales Show Big Gains Over Holidays", New York Times, December 30, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-11-16.
^ a b c Candace Lombardi, "Cyber Monday more myth than reality?", CNET News.com, November 26, 2006
^ Drew Curtis. It's Not News, It's Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News. Gotham. ISBN
"Our consumer business is less than 1 percent. We sell mostly through distributors