"Cyber Monday" Expected To Draw Virtual Crowds

Anti-Globalism writes with this excerpt from PCWorld: "Last year, consumers spent $733 million on Cyber Monday, and it's expected to be even bigger this year. According to a survey by online shopping site Shopzilla for the National Retail Federation's Shop.org, nearly 84 percent of online retailers plan to have a Cyber Monday promotion on December 1. That's up from just 72 percent last year and zero percent in 2005, says Shop.org executive director Scott Silverman."

Comments

Who can afford it?

[elrous0]

I just got a pay cut at work, I may even lose my job if things don't turn around, and my mortgage is now worth more than my house. Not really in a spending mood right now.

Re:Who can afford it?

[CRCulver]

Not really in a spending mood right now.

Why do you hate freedom?

Re:Who can afford it?

[whoda]

I'm still trying to figure out how all these people got the idea that it was God's given right to owe less on your mortgage than the house is worth.

Re:Who can afford it?

[elrous0]

Yeah, but on the downside, you have to live in Oklahoma.

Re:Who can afford it?

[elashish14]

Not really in a spending mood right now.

This is called depression my friend

Re:Who can afford it?

[Sporkinum]

I was a dumbshit and made double payments on my house and paid it off this year in 11 years total. I should have let my rich uncle "Sam" pay it off for me. I also paid off my credit cards too. All a few months before the economy tanked. BTW.. its called living within your means.

Re:Who can afford it?

[Tony Hoyle]

Just keep paying it, and you'll be fine.

When you're in that situation you have the bank by the balls - the worst they can do is take your house.. then they won't get the value of the loan back (or even decent amount of it, since sale by auction normally goes for far less than market value). Or they can encourage you to keep paying and get the whole value back plus interest.

If you do get into difficulties they'll bend over backwards to help.. payment holidays, reduced payments, etc. because of this - banks are in the business of making money not flushing it down the toilet.

Just Hype

[victim]

Cyber Monday is just marketing hype. The peak shopping days come later. The goal is to have a recognizable name that people will google up and read their customers' ads. I suppose they owe a big thank you to Soulskill for getting their message out.

Maybe we can have a slashdot article for Sears' next "White Sale".

Re:Just Hype

[Troy]

It's a great example of belief creating reality, however. If people believe that the Monday after Thanksgiving is the biggest online shopping day of the year, then retailers are going to start offering "Cyber Monday Specials." This, in turn, will drive more people to shop that day. Rinse and repeat.

From a marketing point of view, it is actually quite clever.

Cyber Monday?

[DrClownius]

Cyber Monday?

I put on my robe and wizard hat

Re:Seriously, who makes up this crap?

[LoverOfJoy]

The article doesn't claim otherwise. It states that "Silverman's organization actually invented Cyber Monday in late 2005 as a gimmick to jump-start online sales in the holiday season. The media soon hyped it, and while it's not the biggest online shopping day of the year, it has certainly caught on among e-tailers."

In the article, a TigerDirect rep claims that at least for them, "Cyber Monday was the biggest day of the year for us last year--bigger than Black Friday,"

I always thought the biggest day for brick and mortar stores, at least, was much closer to Christmas.

I guess Amazon is closed on weekends?

[BigZaphod]

I had no idea I had to wait until Monday to start shopping online. I'm glad this Slashdot story showed up or else I might have just gone on buying stuff today and tomorrow and missed out on my chance to contribute to some meaningless statistics!