Cyber Monday: Fact or Fiction?

The official kickoff that begins the holiday shopping season’s mad dash toward Christmas morning comes in the form of the day after Thanksgiving, commonly known as “Black Friday.”  However, the dawn of the Internet age and its companion, online shopping, have added a new term to the lexicon, “Cyber Monday.”  Referring to the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend that serves as the “official” beginning of the online holiday shopping season, the term implies the same sorts of deals for online shoppers as those that exist for Black Friday consumers; question is…is it real…or not?

 

In short, there is no evidence that Cyber Monday represents anything more than a weak attempt at a marketing gimmick, which stands in contrast to the tangible savings that can be realized at bricks-and-mortar stores on Black Friday.  Beyond the truth that there’s little in the way of special savings, there is not even any hard evidence that points to online shoppers spending an inordinate amount of time grabbing deals from within their computers online that day.  Numerous studies (including several commissioned by MasterCard) have shown that despite the hype and use of the clever term, ecommerce sites universally report that the busiest shopping days occur between the first and third weeks of December. 

 

The reality, is that Cyber Monday, the term itself a contrivance of Shop.org, an arm of the National Retail Federation, is something between a mild ruse and an outright hoax…but that said, the usefulness of online shopping cannot be denied.  I do as much of my own Christmas shopping as I can online nowadays; as I age, my tolerance level for the store-bound sea of humanity and their associated behaviors gets lower and lower, and as for the bargains, good ones can now be found all year long.  In the end, then, while so-called Cyber Monday is itself of little value, the Internet as a shopping mechanism is difficult to beat, so this year, consider giving yourself a break from the pushing, shoving, and all-around hassle…and do your Christmas shopping from the seclusion of your own home.         

 

Agree or disagree; please register your comments below.

 

Follow me on Christian Chirp at www.christianchirp.com/robertyetman.

 

Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor-At-Large www.ChristianMoney.com

 

Tags: cyber+monday, robert+yetman,+christian+financial+advice