One million more Americans plan to shop online on Cyber Monday even if many of them had a credit card swiping experience on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. A study released on Sunday placed the number of U.S. consumers who plan to shop online on Nov. 28 at 122 million, up from 121 million in 2015.
During the Thanksgiving-Black Friday weekend sale, there were 108.5 million online shoppers and another 99.1 million who went to bricks-and-mortar stores. Some large retailers, such as Walmart, began their Cyber Monday sale earlier to pre-empt online retailers such as Amazon.com, Fortune reports.
Averting A Website Crash
Having a physical store sale helped Target avert a crash of its e-commerce site similar to what happened to the retail giant in 2015. But many shoppers preferred online shopping over roughing it out with other shoppers in bricks-and-mortar stores, resulting in e-commerce sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday reaching $7.2 billion, up 17.3 percent compared to 2015.
Among those who plan to shop on Cyber Monday, 28 million plan to use their mobile phones. The shift from PCs and laptops to cellular phones as gadgets used during online shopping is the reason why giant retailers with physical stores such as Kohl’s, J.C. Penney and Walmart spend a lot in developing their mobile shopping apps.
The Origin Of Cyber Week
BGR notes that Thanksgiving and Black Friday, with the creation of Cyber Monday, has morphed into Cyber Week. Retailers have attempted to try to beat each other in clinching the dollars of shoppers by opening earlier than Nov. 28.
At Walmart, which slashed the price of the Samsung 32-inch LED high-definition TV to $147.99 from $419.99 and the GMC Sierra Denali 12V Ride on to $299 from $379, Cyber Monday began at 8 PM RST of Sunday. It is not just TVs that Walmart has slashed prices. The retailer sells Women’s Puffer Jackets at $15.98, Women’s Christmas sweaters at $10 and Meccano T-Rex Meccasaur at $57.99 from $199.
