Cyber Monday will be huge. Why? It’s a habit

Original reason for it has faded, but folks ‘ can’t get enough’ sales

SAN FRANCISCO — Cyber Monday is forecast to be the largest online shopping day in U. S. history. Not bad for a made- up holiday that has its roots in the painful slowness of dialup modems.

This year, Americans are expected to spend $ 6.6 billion online the Monday following Thanksgiving vs. $ 5 billion online on Black Friday, according to Adobe Analytics. That’s despite ubiquitous smartphones and broadband, and plenty of online deals starting Thursday.

Over time, Cyber Monday has become a self- fulfilling prophesy. Consumers are conditioned to expect a rash of cyber sales when they get back to work on Monday, and companies are happy to oblige.

“People love sales and can’t get enough of them,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, a senior retail analyst with Forrester Research.

Companies like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Macy’s, Nordstrom and Target are happy to oblige.

The first Cyber Monday was in 2005. That’s when Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation came up with the term. Other suggestions were Blue Monday ( after the color of Web links) or Green Monday ( for the money being made) — but she liked the clarity of Cyber Monday.

The idea was to leverage something that was already happening. At the time, online sales were still new. In 2004, just 10% of Americans did any holiday shopping online at all, though by 2005 it was up to around 30%, according to ComScore Networks.

People were used to going out to stores the Friday after Thanksgiving for the shopping madness that had come to be known as Black Friday — as they still do. But to shop online, they waited for the workweek.

“They would begin their Web shopping on the Monday they got back to work, because that’s where they had access to a high- speed Internet connection,” said Gene Alvarez, a retail analyst at Gartner.

Within a year, Cyber Monday had embedded in our psyches, even though the reason it originally existed had faded. Today, 73% of U. S. households have broadband, and 75% of Americans have smartphones, according to the Pew Research Center.

Adobe’s Tamara Gaffney thinks people actually will be shopping online all weekend. But they don’t hit the “buy” button until they’re convinced they’ve gotten the absolute best price.

“If you look at the hourly peak times for ( Cyber Monday) shopping, they come between 8: 00 and 11: 00 pm in each time zone,” said Gaffney, strategic insights engagement group director for Adobe.

“They know that by Monday night it’s not going any lower, and if they wait until Tuesday, the deals will be gone. So that’s when they hit the ‘ buy’ button,” she said.

Americans are expected to spend $ 6.6 billion online the Monday following Thanksgiving. Online shoppers know “if they wait until Tuesday, the deals will be gone.” Tamara Gaffney Adobe Analytics