After the hectic Black Friday shopping, consumers in the United States are ready for Cyber Monday; a term to denote the start of holiday shopping from the comfort of your home.
The term was started by Shop.org, which is the National Retail Federation's online division, in November 2005. Since then the term has caught the fancy of American consumers and most of them like to indulge in a bit of online shopping this Monday.
Scott Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation, explained the phenomenon by saying most retailers offer bargain deals so as t kick off holiday shopping season, "Retailers are having special Cyber Monday sales, and the way I see it, if retailers are attaching a sale and calling it Cyber Monday, it's true," he added.
However he added that neither Black Friday nor Cyber Monday were the biggest shopping days before the holiday season. The Saturday before Christmas gets that honor, he pointed out.
Meanwhile it is estimated that holiday spending is set to rise to $474.5 billion this year, a jump of just about 4 percent as compared to last year. And only 7 percent of this spending occurs online. A survey by BizRate Research found that over 70 percent of online retailers were to offer special promotions in a bid to rev up sales for Cyber Monday.
Last year Cyber Monday sales totaled $608 million. This year comScore Media Metrix is predicting they will cross $700 million.
