Slashdot Mirror
Web Retailers Expect Brisk 'Cyber Monday'
The New York Times has a piece this morning looking at an anticipated brisk day of sales for 'Cyber Monday'. The Monday after Black Friday gained the moniker last year, based on increased online sales from 2004 and 2005. Advertisers, now once again fans of the web, have a lot to smile about as well. Specifically targeted ads have already been purchased for today, in hopes of increasing sales. This year, online retailers are expecting a jump in the range of 20% (as they did last year). From the article: "Patti Freeman Evans, an analyst with JupiterResearch, a technology consulting firm, said online sales this year would reach the $100 billion threshold for the first time. Online sales, she added, would probably constitute 6 percent of total holiday merchandise sales. Some of that online growth comes from new shoppers. According to a recent Jupiter survey, 114 million online users planned to buy something online this holiday season, a 6 percent jump from last year. The National Retail Federation said 47 percent of consumers would make at least one holiday purchase online this year, up from 36 percent three years ago."
A lot of the reason for the online growth is that people tend to be an impatient lot and as just about everywhere is shut Christmas day and many also on the 26th, people can't wait for the stores to open, also add to the people who got their first computer as a gift (hopefully a mac unless they're comfortable with Linux) may be keen to make their first online purchase.
a/s/l?
The Global Standardized Committee of the Coining of Phrases coins all phrases. No one else is allowed to do so on pain of ... pain.
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
Reminds me of an add I seriously saw on slashdot once(one of those "top n sites" pieces of shit):
Molestation: Top 6 sites!
They have our number....
Monstar L
Just one problem: It's not true, at least for many online retailers. Contrary to what the recent blitz of media coverage implies, Cyber Monday isn't nearly the biggest online shopping or spending day of the year. It ranks only as the 12th-biggest day historically, according to market researcher comScore Networks. It's not even the first big day of the season.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
I thought we all agreed to stop using the word cyber after the burst of the dot-com bubble.
And on that note, who coined the phrase, "to coin a phrase?"
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
The National Retail Federation coined this phrase, apparently.
We've discussed this obvious attempt at boosting sales before, and the consensus was that there's no need for a "cyber monday" - the reasons for the Black Friday bricks-and-mortar sales just don't apply to the online world. This is nothing more than a grab for some extra sales before Christmas, and the media are falling for it.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
Some random editor, or producer in the case of TV, searching for a cute phrase for a headline or pre-commercial teaser. Then the rest of the journalists, being the original, free-thinking, creative, independant lemmings that they are, follow him off the cliff.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
It's really too bad online retailers have had to mark up their goods 5-10% or more to pay for the ads and search engine manipulation needed to get any customers at all to their sites. If you're on the second page of a search result, you're not really in the search result at all.
It's no wonder sale prices at stores (item + tax) have been better then online (item + ad markup + shipping) for a while now. Now online is only good if you want an old item that stores don't stock because newer things are on the shelf.
Google should have a banner day tomorrow, everyone else is pretty much screwed one way or the other merchant and consumer alike.
.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
... what an idiotic phrase. I hope I never learn what it means.
I was waiting for the same bogus "Cyber Monday" stories we got last year. It's the same myth it was last year. See Business Week. "Contrary to what the recent blitz of media coverage implies, Cyber Monday isn't nearly the biggest online shopping or spending day of the year. It ranks only as the 12th-biggest day historically, according to market researcher comScore Networks. It's not even the first big day of the season." This story ran *last year*.
Penny - plain text accounting
Why, the Cybernym Office of the Department of Cyberland Security, of course! (Or for our British friends, the Ministry of Funny Cyber-Related Names). We need somebody to come up with these inane names so that we don't have to waste precious shopping time and brain cells coming up with names that make sense!
Post-thanksgiving shopping spike? Cyber monday. Post-valentine indigestion? Cyber diahrrea. Post-New year's hangover? Cyber burrito (don't ask).
These and other wonderful phrases are coined by experts in the field of anti-marketing, who then insert them subliminally into the President's speeches. Those flubs you thought president Bush makes? They're actually implanting new words into your brain, which is then covered over by a constructed memory of a speech gaffe, thus ensuring the nation does not know where these new terms come from.
So the next time you hear someone mention their "Zune", their "myspace", "lonelygirl15", "capcha", or "Cybersecurity", you'll know they're imaginary things implanted in people's brains against their will! And knowing... is half the battle!
Ugh.
Here's a suggestion: STOP BUYING UNNECESARY CRAP.
Go outside. Take a walk. Work off the extra pounds you put on stuffing yourself with obscene amounts of food last Thursday. And while you're out there, walking around, contemplate the fact that our nation is in an unwinnable war, the gap between rich and poor is expanding at a record rate (partly due to the fact that our jobs are being sold to the lowest overseas bidder), our national savings rate is negative, and we're likely funding our economic "expansion" with home loans and credit-card debt.
Meanwhile, our leaders' chief concern seems to be that we buy enough shit during the weekend after thanksgiving.
Let's try not to let fact interfere with our speculation here, OK?
Sounds like a stock market crash.
Why do people subject themselves to such crazes? We've got similar days here (.nl) once or twice a year (national holidays combined with open stores), and I avoid stores like the plague on those days.
Mmmm... Cyber Monkey...
Just in time for Christmas!
It's a pretty obvious phenomenon, with all the ebay birds buying laptops and junk at BestBuy at 5 in the morning on T-day. It's no secret where THAT tratition started. Bah.
http://english-lyrics.com/
All the people who had 4 day weekends couldn't POSSIBLY have had time to do their shopping from home during that time.
They will go into work on Monday, fire up their computer, talk about the holiday, do no real work, and get paid by their employers to shop online all day long.
Go outside. Take a walk. Work off the extra pounds you put on stuffing yourself with obscene amounts of food last Thursday. And while you're out there, walking around, contemplate the fact that our nation is in an unwinnable war, the gap between rich and poor is expanding at a record rate (partly due to the fact that our jobs are being sold to the lowest overseas bidder), our national savings rate is negative, and we're likely funding our economic "expansion" with home loans and credit-card debt.Oh get off your high-horse. I find it somewhat unlikely that the problems of the world are going to be solved by buying less stuff, infact the immediate economic impact would be highly damaging if 'we stop buying stuff we don't need'. High savings can be just as damaging to the economy as high borrowings, cause if people aren't spending then nobody's being paid to provide the goods.
What do you deem unnecessary crap exactly? You're writing that post on a computer, do you own a computer? Do you really need it? What about your car, how big is it? Do you really need a vehicle that powerful, or at all?
We all buy stuff we don't need, it's the spoils of being lucky enough to be in a part of the world and a job where we can. Get over it.
the reasons for Black Friday bricks-and-mortar sales just don't apply to the online world.I don't know about that. Traditional retailers aren't doing it right, that's for sure. They could probably learn something from Woot, which has the equivalent of a line of people waiting up until 1:00EST every night to be the first to see what they're selling for the day. Though, many of them are just there waiting for the next bandolier of carrots...
If Walmart or Target had such sales on their online sites, and advertised them as starting at midnight, I could see them getting the same kind of following.
way to "get" thanksgiving, toolbag
There was a /. article on this two years ago!0 5/nf20051129_9946_db016.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Monday
It's a marketing myth. Those "market reports" are press releases. Get your head in the game.
Last Thursday?
That shows a distinct lack of planning. I ensured I had enough leftovers to stuff myself with obscene amounts of food for lunch on Saturday and dinner last night as well!
Now, if anyone needs me today, I'll be in stall #2.
Part of the reason for the monday boost is that online retailers are making no promises about shipping over Thanksgiving. So while customers stuffed full of turkey dinner have plenty of time to place orders from the comfort of their home people do not get back to work and shipping things out until Monday.
Here's hoping my order arrives sometime in the next two weeks.
Ask Yahoo answers
Sierra Tango Foxtrot Uniform
From shop.org:
"Is Cyber Monday the biggest online shopping day of the year?
No. Much like the day after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year but is not the biggest. (Last year, according to retailers, the busiest online shopping day was December 12, one of the last days of the holiday season that retailers were offering free standard shipping.) However, many retailers see Cyber Monday as the online equivalent to "Black Friday." It is the kickoff to the online holiday shopping season when retailers offer special promotions to bring customers to the web and introduce them to holiday merchandise.
Was Cyber Monday "made up?"
The term "Cyber Monday" was coined last year by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation. However, the trend of Cyber Monday was initially recognized a number of years ago, when many retailers saw spikes in sales and traffic as consumers went back to work after the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Though Shop.org gave the Monday after Thanksgiving a name, it hardly created the trend."
I guess if you tell people it's a big shopping day, eventually it will be. Fucking mean, though.
Don't save that spreadsheet. Retailers typically anticipate brisk sales around the holidays. What actually happens is not always the same.
You call that rationalizing? I'm sure you can do better than that. Try this:
The scientists are only like 99% sure of this global warming thing, so I'll continue live in that 1% margin of error where I can drive my SUV an hour each way to work. If we run out of oil we'll just say that venezuela or canada has WMDs or something. I work hard all day browsing the internet and posting on web forums. I deserve to have brand name clothes made by children in some sweatshop somewhere. I need that cell phone made from materials mined by slaves in africa so I can text message my votes for american idol, which I watch on my Plasma HDTV. Sure I'd like to give money to charity, but you know they'll just waste it. Only my opinion matters, everyone who disagrees with me is a hypocrite. People should either be rich enough to not care about the world or poor enough to not have the means to criticize the way world works.
Now that's how you rationalize.
"Here's a suggestion: STOP BUYING UNNECESARY CRAP."
Well let's see. My Logitech which is no longer made is dying (Netcraft cofirms it) and I went out and got a MS wireless 5000 mouse. Guess I should return it since it's "unnecessary crap".
"and we're likely funding our economic "expansion" with home loans and credit-card debt."
Well after my car accident that's what it takes to pay the bills, since I can't work for a good while. No health insurance, and savings burned through after the economy collapsed post 9/11. Hey everyone! I can rant too. Weee!
Dear Tim (686), you must be new here. Oh, wait...
Nuffsaid
________
Don't know about his cat, but Schroedinger is definitely dead.
You are so very wrong. Online retailers are typically much less expensive than brick and mortar as they don't have the overhead of well, brick and mortar. Take a wander around http://www.amazon.com/ and you'll find the majority of the items for sale are much less than you would pay in a store. Oh, and if you live in a state (such as CA) where Amazon does not have a physical presence (e.g. shipping facility), you won't pay sales tax.
I'd much rather stay home, avoid the mobs, keep warm, browse on-line for my holiday gifts and have them wrapped and delivered directly to family members and friends and save money at the time.
Rich people are eccentric. Poor people are strange. Me, I'd be happy with odd.
Because the problems of the world are being solved by continuing to buy products from countries which have huge human rights abuses, suppression of free speech and religion and all the other related matters, right?
Not buying products that we don't need from these countries would have an immediate economic impact because these countries would have massive unemployment which would probably cause the people to demand changes.
High savings can be just as damaging to the economy as high borrowings
Except that there is no savings in this country. Currently, we have a negative savings rate. This means that the current economic resilience is being sustained by people buying crap they don't need and not having a reserve in case something happens (job loss, serious medical condition, etc).
The OP is correct. We buy tons of crap we don't need. Go to any flea market or yard sale and look at what is being offered. I've said for years that the only reason the economy keeps going is because of all the useless crap that people buy.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
This is what's wrong with news coverage today. Actual journalists would take a press release from an industry group proclaiming a specific day as the biggest online shopping day of the year (complete with headline-friendly name, "Cyber Monday") and look into whether the release's claims are true or not. The journalists we have just take it as gospel and pass it along (with a few brave exceptions). Beyond pathetic.
Read my blog.
Interesting? This should be 'Troll', or 'Off-topic' at best...
Starmen.net
The amount of SPAM in my GMail spam folder grew from 4200 to 6200 during the weekend. This means that during th weekend I received 2000 SPAM e-mails more than a month ago. I feat what the christmas shopping season brings...
Antti S. Brax - Old school - http://www.iki.fi/asb/
Ah, the perils of Econ 101. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
Maybe we are expected to buy in a single day everything we don't need, and leave the rest of the year for providing the boring necessary goods.
Nuffsaid
________
Don't know about his cat, but Schroedinger is definitely dead.
I say, keep consuming, guys. I'm living on the cheap and buying American companies so that I can retire in my 30's and live off the profits of you people consuming. If we all invested for the long term and wasted less money, my investments wouldn't be so profitable...
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
What muddies this argument is that online and regular retailers are providing two different types of conveniences: (most) regular retailers have a very small selection but you get your item right away and if you've never seen it you can hold it, inspect it, etc. Online retailers (many times) have huge selections but you (almost always) have to wait a few days if not a week to get something. Price, I believe, is secondary. As long as either is within spitting range of each other (say 10%) most people will just choose on whether they want it now or are willing to wait.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Or at least buy it from a small local businessperson and not from the "machine" (ie: walmart). Go see Fast Food Nation, which really makes you feel like a pawn.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Not buying products that we don't need from these countries would have an immediate economic impact because these countries would have massive unemployment which would probably cause the people to demand changes.Fine, I don't disagree in principal. But it is a massive task for any one person to educate themselves as to the source of everything they may need (or want) to buy, and the working conditions there, mitigating circumstances, whatever, and make an appropriate decision. It is a huge duplication of effort and (let's be honest) never going to happen in any big way since most people do not have time.
I know this is an unpopular point-of-view here.... but this is what we have governments for. To put appropriate pressure and do the leg-work on behalf of the people. The OP is correct. We buy tons of crap we don't need. But my point in my previous post is where do you draw the line? What don't you need? Do you need a computer? a car? hot running water? hair products? new shoes? We don't want to live in poverty, but we *could*, we don't *need* these things.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have got to be the two single most retarded nicknamed days in the entire existence of mankind...next to Fat Tuesday wrapped with just as much pointless and retarded meaning as Starbucks.
All you really need is food, water, air, and shelter (in which I am including some rags as a sort of traveling shelter). Everything else is a luxury to some degree. However, providing those luxuries is a major source of human happiness (and has been since the first guy or gal figured out a way to provide the first four in a little less time than the day before). I would say that allowing people to choose which necessities and which luxuries are worth having is really the principle freedom of a liberal economy.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
..."take it as gospel??" (This from the 8th paragraph of the story, which until this point doesn't even mention Cyber Monday. (Nor does the headline.) Online retailers are taking a more coordinated approach to offering promotional sales. The National Retail Federation, and its Shop.org online division (which represents online retailers) last year dubbed the Monday after Thanksgiving "Cyber Monday," in recognition of an increase in shopping traffic akin to what offline stores experience on Black Friday. Despite all that online traffic, though, Cyber Monday sales lagged those of many other holiday-season days. To convert browsers to shoppers, 400 retailers have posted sales and shipping promotions on CyberMonday.com, which will feature deals throughout the holiday season.
Since Akamai is the delivery platform for more than 200 global online retail companies, it has a unique view into the daily Web traffic of these sites. (Full disclosure: I work for Akamai Technologies, Inc.)
So far, according to the Akamai's real-time Network Usage Retail Index, the number of visitors per minute to online retailers is up 23% more than the average day today. Its also up 9% from the 5-month peak recorded earlier this month. Not a huge increase, but significant.
Regardless of whether you think Cyber Monday was a myth or a natural occurrence in the past, now we may be in for reality imitating the media. Consumers may expect more deals on Cyber Monday and will look for them. Retailers will respond by offering more deals. And because its a regularly scheduled event, its easy to plan press releases and advertising for.
But online visits doesn't mean more profit to retailers, or even more profit. I wonder how many of those visitors are just buying the loss leaders, window shopping or checking the refund policy on the stuff they bought earlier in the week.
Most employers prohibit the use of company assets for personal use, which includes computers and internet connections. I have known people to get fired for using their employer's internet connection for personal business.
Yet what gets me is the news media and the marketers like to make consumers think it is the norm and perfectly acceptable, in fact expected, of people to take part in "cyber monday".
This is one more example of greed by the marketers and bankers causing hardship on the regular person for gain.
Funny how that sounds a lot like a Business Week article I read once.
At the very least, cite the source. Otherwise it's plagiarism.
Do you need Karma that bad?
At no point in the article do they claim that "Cyber Monday" is the biggest online shopping day of the year. You are complaining about something that they never actually said! In fact, the article explicitly states that it isn't the biggest online shopping day of the year.
"Despite all that online traffic, though, Cyber Monday sales lagged those of many other holiday-season days. "
Why should journalists bother to fact-check their articles when you don't even bother to read them?
How hard is it for someone to look at the sticker to see where a product is made and not buy it if it's made in China? Yes, I'm well aware that 94.872% of all products sold in this country are made in China but that does not change the fact that not buying a product made in that country would do several things:
1) It would deprive the Chinese government of currency to continue their polices
2) It would deprive the workers of payment for the goods they produced, thus, hopefully, leading to them making demands on their government
3) It would cause stores to change their purchasing policies because they would know that products made in China wouldn't sell
4) It would help to reduce our trade deficit
As far as what is crap, how about all the little tchotchkes that people buy when they go on vacation? Things like shot glasses with name of the place they stayed in, all those stuffed Ty dolls that were so big years ago but which now are only good for filling landfills or for burning in furnaces and other related items.
I'm not talking about things like clothes, specialty foods and whatnot, those are necessity items since they allow us to live comfortably. But a chocolate fountain, no matter how cool it looks the one time you use it, isn't necessary.
I realize that my definition of crap is different than your definition of crap but people need to take a look at what they're buying and ask themselves, "Do I need this?" and "How often will I use it?"
Those two questions would go along way towards stopping the purchasing of crap.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
My colleague Bob Sullivan (an "actual journalist") takes a look at the Cyber Monday myth over at his blog, Red Tape Chronicles.
My other computer is your Windows box
i'll definetly be buying yer stuff and clicking yer ads this year!! horayy!
Oh, SHOPPING!!! I had an entirely different mental image of Cyber Monday.
Oh what the hell. A/S/L plz.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere