Five online trends from Cyber Monday

The Black Friday sales may have come and gone, but the shopping season isn’t over just yet, with online retailers in the United States set to take part in their own tradition of Cyber Monday.

The term itself is only six-years-old, having been established in 2005 when online retailers started offering digital-only discounts on the first day back at work after Thanksgiving, after noticing a spike in traffic.

In just that time, the day has gone from the 12th most popular online shopping day to the first, with over $US1 billion in spending, according to Comscore – a jump of 16% from the previous year.

This year is set to be even bigger, and even some Australian retailers have caught on, along with shops in New Zealand, Britain, Germany and Canada. Just as Black Friday is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, Cyber Monday is becoming an ever-more important feature of the retail calendar.

If you’re an online retailer, this is one day you should be paying attention. Here are five trends about Cyber Monday you need to know:

Social media

Facebook has become a type of hub for a lot of retailers, with many of the world’s biggest shopping chains boasting fan pages with hundreds of thousands of fans. In fact, the top stores have several million fans combined, and many shoppers say they’ll visit a company’s Facebook page before buying.

Having a Facebook page for a store is becoming incredibly important, and can become a hub for sales if you offer exclusive discounts to your Facebook fans.

Just as digital shopping is becoming more important, social networking is slowly integrating itself with commerce as well. More users are relying on social networks for friends and family to share good deals.

International business

Although Cyber Monday is certainly tied to the Thanksgiving holiday, more international retailers are offering discounts of their own. Businesses in countries including Canada, Britain, Germany and New Zealand are beginning to show off deals.

Even some Australian businesses are getting on board. KeepCup, the company that makes reusable coffee cups, is offering a Cyber Monday deal where users can access a discount by “liking” the business on Facebook.

Cyber Monday is more of an international tradition than an America holiday, and more Australian businesses are recognising the opportunity.

Email marketing

Just as Black Friday sales have started creeping up earlier and earlier, more businesses are trying to get in front of Cyber Monday by sending out email marketing campaigns in advance.

It’s too often that SMEs don’t take use of their marketing databases, and here’s a perfect opportunity. More and more businesses are starting to drum up anticipation for deals by sending out emails on Sunday, or even on Saturday.

Event branding

A little bit of good branding never goes astray. The term “Cyber Monday” was actually created by the eCommerce group Shop.org, but has been adopted by internet retailers as a generic term. And every year, more businesses start using that term to market their own products.

Businesses are becoming more comfortable in offering deals while using the “Cyber Monday” term as an umbrella brand. As more SMEs hop on, that’ll only become more popular.

Early morning shopping

Figures from Shop.org show most people are shopping earlier in the day. In fact, the number of people who are shopping dips right after lunch, and continues to fall into the evening.

Although these figures are for American shoppers, they demonstrate a clear trend. And more businesses are taking advantage of that by moving their marketing efforts to earlier in the day, and overnight, so customers have deals waiting for them as soon as they check their inbox in the morning.