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Black Friday may bring out the holiday shopping crowds, but Cyber Monday is increasingly generating the biggest bucks for retailers as consumers hop online to make merry and find gifts for the holidays. According to data from IBM Coremetrics and comScore, Cyber Monday sales rose 20% in 2010 and topped $1 billion in online spending–the first year ever that Cyber Monday bested the sales generated on Black Friday, which totaled $648 million last year.
This year, experts predict Cyber Monday sales will also rise significantly thanks to a host of new online shopping apps and consumers’ growing comfort with technology. If you’d rather shop online from the comfort and convenience of your own home, take these unique steps to make the most of your holiday shopping on Cyber Monday.
Get On the List
The single best strategy to unearth Cyber Monday bargains early is to get on a good deals list put together by experts who are tracking retailers’ offers. Dealnews.com is hot on the case this year. By Monday night, the site already had information about “leaked†Black Friday ads with both rumored and confirmed deals from such retailers as Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Lowes, Sears, Target and Wal-Mart.
To get email, text alerts or an RSS feed about Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals sent to you, all you have to do is provide Dealnews.com and other sites like it with your email address. Dealnews.com also has a free Black Friday app available for iPhone and Android users.
Forget Monday–Get Online Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday
Here’s one Cyber Monday strategy that may not have occurred to you: Get online early–as in, a couple of days early (like right now). According to the experts at Dealnews.com, if you start hunting online for must-have holiday gift items on Cyber Monday, you risk being sorely disappointed and getting just “leftovers.â€
“For those of you who’d rather fully digest your Thanksgiving meal and not stand on line starting at 3am on Black Friday, we understand. Shopping for the best deals can be exhausting, but if you wait until Cyber Monday you will be missing out on some of the highest markdowns of the holiday season,†the staff at Dealnews.com recently wrote, in giving consumers holiday shopping pointers.
“Coming out of your tryptophan daze on Monday, you’ll definitely see retailers’ sales, but these bargains are essentially the leftovers from the Black Friday feast. Plus, many Friday offerings will be available online, so you really have no excuse for a late start,†Dealnews.com experts added.