Cyber ​​Monday history. How marketers come up with a holiday

According to the National Federation of US Retailers, up to 40% of total annual sales fall on the last two months of the year. In many ways, the reason for Cyber ​​Monday is the relatively new “holiday of geeks” with sales of various gadgets. Huffington Post predicts that this Cyber ​​Monday will be "the most profitable day in history." Americans are expected to buy at least $ 6.6 billion worth of vehicles, 16.5% more than last year. And the total sales during the holiday period in the United States will exceed $ 100 billion for the first time. How did such a day appear and why did it become so popular?

Where did he come from?

The idea of ​​a separate day, on which major sales begin, is connected, oddly enough, with the parades of Santa Claus . Since the XVIII century, many cities began to arrange them annually on Thanksgiving Day. They were meant to show the approach of Christmas. One of the first figures in the parade was roaming a turkey, and at the end Santa appeared with his reindeer, showing that the new holiday was not far away, and soon all the kids would receive presents. Colorful parades have always attracted a good crowd, and in the late XIX - early XX century, shops began to use it. They began to sponsor parades - and of course, in parallel to remind visitors of their existence. The largest and most famous of these parades is the parade in New York , hosted by Macy's department store chain. You probably saw him in some Hollywood film - with giant balloons in the form of famous characters, floating at the height of the fourth floor.

Shops used parades as a great start to their large advertising campaigns - so that during Christmas and New Year everyone would come to buy gifts for them. Over time, a tacit rule emerged: you can launch Christmas advertising only after Santa Claus parades. In other words, after Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln set Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November in 1863 to help culturally unite the southern and northern states. Therefore, the beginning of large discounts after always accounted for Friday. Noticing rabid traffic jams that day, in the USA it was called “Black”.

Black Friday has become the main symbol of sales; people went crazy trying to run to the store first thing in the morning and get the cheapest of them. It became the most profitable day of the year for buyers, and the most profitable for retailers.

Everything began to change in the 2000s, with the proliferation of the Internet and online sales. People began to realize that it was not at all necessary to stand in festive traffic jams and jostle with other customers in the supermarket. With almost the same success, discounts starting after the Santa Claus parades can be obtained online. In 2004, only 10% of Americans ordered something online for Christmas, but by 2005 there were 30% of them.

And another interesting feature manifested itself. Traditionally, the entire XX century shopping peak fell on Friday, and then interest gradually subsided. But in 2002-2004. stores have noticed that they have another surge in sales. On Monday. People who spent time with the family on Thanksgiving Day and on the weekend, returned to the office, to the reliable Internet, and decided to take part in the remaining sales. [Reference: Approximately half of the homes in the United States at that time, according to the NYT, were still connected to the network via dial-up modems; connection speed ranged from 0.9 to 3 Mbps].

In 2004, the online revenue on the first Monday after Black Friday became so serious that the US National Retailers Federation decided to give this phenomenon a special name.

Name selection

Ellen Davis , vice president of the retailers federation, was in charge of finding the right term for a new sales holiday. There was an option "Blue Monday" - in honor of the color of the links on which the buyers went. Or "Green Monday" - the color of the money that is spent and earned on this day. As a result, Ellen stopped at Cyber ​​Monday - to show that the discounts here are mainly designed for online shoppers.

Like all the great American traditions, Cyber ​​Monday began with a press release. In 2005, a week before Thanksgiving, the federation announced a new, additional day of sales, and invited all the stores to participate in it. The same press release explained why, in their opinion, the new “holiday” has every chance of success, even though it immediately follows Black Friday. There were three main reasons:

• more secure, stable and high-speed Internet connections;
• lack of time to adequately purchase over the weekend after Thanksgiving;
• the desire to calmly and thoughtfully choose gifts for themselves and families, without relatives looking over their shoulders.

The New York Times was the first to tell the general public about the new day:

It sounds like awesome marketing, but it turns out Cyber ​​Monday is a very real trend. According to Shop.org, 77% of online sites reported a significant improvement in sales on Monday after Thanksgiving. And they are already lowering prices for this period in order to attract buyers. Monday at the end of November is already the day of big sales, only until recently he had no official name.

In 2006, comScore reported a 25% jump in sales: Cyber ​​Monday brought in $ 608 million. In 2007, $ 733 million, in 2008, $ 846 million. The annual growth was 18-20%. By 2014, sales reached $ 2.65 billion. On average, each buyer spent $ 160. Just the approximate price of a gadget.

What's this year

In terms of user interest, Cyber ​​Monday has already bypassed Black Friday, and entrenched itself as the most profitable day for retailers (at least in the US). Apparently, the reason is that Black Friday is still an offline event, and in Cyber ​​Monday, people prefer to buy online.

This year, 56% of Americans surveyed said that they were going to make purchases on Monday, November 27 (compared with 39% last year). The average buyer, according to the RetailMeNot website, will spend $ 205. It is expected that this Cyber ​​Monday will raise more than $ 4 billion for the first time in history. Although Alibaba’s “Bachelor’s Day” is still far away.

The main category of goods, even in Cyber ​​Monday, is clothing. About 40% of Americans told about their plans to find and buy it at a discount. From electronics users are most interested in laptops, televisions and smart speakers.

All major online retailers - Walmart, Amazon, Target, eBay, BHphotovideo, Newegg and others are participating in the celebration. Among not so large, but no less profitable - Adorama, RadioShack, BuyDig. Most of them are stocked with the most attractive offers, at least at the level of Black Friday. Come on Pochtoy.com , enter the code Geektimes, automatically get your personal address in the US for receiving goods - and you can buy things in America with the cheapest delivery to Russia.