Cyber Monday Draws 129M Americans Shopping Online
WASHINGTON -- Despite record levels of online spending over the Thanksgiving weekend (READ STORY), shoppers still have plenty of appetite for one-day only deals being offering today, Cyber Monday, as 129.2 million shoppers head to retailers’ websites today.
According to a survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGinsight, 129.2 million Americans plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from the 122.8 million who shopped last year, and the 106.9 million who shopped on Cyber Monday in 2010. Eager to meet consumers’ demands, 85% of retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, according to a survey released last week.
“Retailers have honed and improved their websites, mobile sites and social media outreach to be better than ever and consumers know that come Cyber Monday, many retailers will have a slew of new promotions,” said Vicki Cantrell, executive director of Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation.
The number of shoppers planning to use smartphones or other mobile devices this Cyber Monday increased to 20.4 million this year, from 17.8 million in 2011, an increase of 14.4%. In just three years, the number of Americans saying they would use their mobile device to shop on Cyber Monday has skyrocketed from just 3.6 million (3.8%) in 2009 to 20.4 million (15.8%) in 2012.
While the majority of Cyber Monday shoppers will make purchases from their home computer (88.0%, or 113.7 million people), nearly 16 million will also use their computers at work to shop this year (12.4%). A Shop.org survey released last week estimated that nearly 72 million Americans would shop from work at some point during the holiday season.
While many retailers expect to see sales and traffic spike over lunch hours, Cyber Monday shoppers plan to go online throughout the day. According to the survey, 44.4% of Cyber Monday shoppers plan to hit the web early in the morning, with more than one-third of (36.8%) planning to shop in the late morning. Additionally, nearly three in 10 Cyber Monday shoppers (29.2%) will shop in the early evening.
Cyber Monday, a term coined by Shop.org in 2005, began after retailers noticed a trend of people shopping online on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Today Cyber Monday is viewed as the kickoff to the online holiday shopping season, when shoppers flood websites expecting promotions and many retailers highlight some of their most compelling holiday offers.
The survey, conducted Nov. 23-24, 2012 by BIGinsight, polled 4,005 consumers and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6%.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.