It looks like retailers finally understand what Sears figured out in 1996.
According to our astute and knowledgeable friend the Wall Street Journal, sales in one of the worst economic downturns of our lifetimes, actually rose 5% for the Monday after Thanksgiving. Some say it was as much as 14% more
Apparently, shippers spent almost 900 million in one day (Nov 30th) as online sellers hung out the big discounts to customers everywhere.
When I talked to Kevin Strawbridge, CEO of DealTaker.com, a leading online coupon site, he said “DealTaker experienced it’s single biggest traffic and revenue generation day ever. It totally exceeded our expectations and set the tone for a great 2009 holiday season.”
And they even advertised- by TV, radio etc, driving customers not to brick and mortar stores, but to the web. Sure, that seems like a small deal but that’s only because we as consumers are akin to the frog in boiling water. It’s a complete shift in the way we purchase but it’s happened so gradually that we’ve hardly noticed it.
To put it in perspective, you could say we’re actually reverting back to the way it was done when Sears Roebuck & Co. first opened. Everything was sent by mail (If you’re able to get a copy of one of their old catalogs, it’s good fun).
Retailers are realizing that online isn’t some niche market-though that’s been obvious for a while. Visits were down and so was the average price, but there were more people shopping more sites. That’s good for all of us.
Who’s number one? Amazon of course. The largest increase came from Staples – a whopping 61%. To see the rest of the pack, go here
Sure, online only accounts for less than 10% of retail shopping but it will grow. More people shopped on Cyber Monday than ever before.
And it’s only going to grow. According to the Journal, comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni says major retailers “decided we shouldn’t be treating the e-commerce business as something completely separate from offline.”
What a concept.