Well, that’s what happened to Shop.org (which is a division of the National Retail Federation), which is credited with coming up with Cyber Monday, and does own CyberMonday.com. Bing banned CyberMonday.com from its search results just at the time of the year when the site would be most useful to consumers. It’s back now, but who’s looking for Cyber Monday deals at this point?

Did Bing make a mistake? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Danny Sullivan first reported on the ordeal at the end of November, when Bing told him:

Consistent with our guidance to site owners, websites that seem to rely mostly on affiliate content or that offer only thin content often don’t deliver the value searchers are looking for and may be demoted or removed from our index. This is something we continually refine and look at closely throughout the year.

It’s nothing new, and follows guidance we’ve given on our webmaster site. We don’t have any specifics to share.

Thin content. As Sullivan pointed out, it sounds like Bing’s version of Panda, but at the same time, they said it was nothing new.

Now, a couple weeks later, Sullivan is sharing another statement from Bing saying:

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are notorious times for spammers, and during this time Bing’s spam classification algorithm picked up this spam pattern and heightened its criteria.

We have since revised our algorithm which has led to some previously blocked sites returning to the index.

The site was never demoted by Google, which has been on a well-documented campaign by the name of Panda to get rid of “thin content” from its top search results. When I search “cyber monday” in Google, cybermonday.com is second in the organic listings only to the Wikipedia page for Cyber Monday.

I guess the real question is: is cybermonday.com an ideal search result for the query Cyber Monday?

It seems to be good enough for both Google and Bing now. The site basically exists solely to provide users with Cyber Monday deals, and when consumers are searching for “cyber monday,” there’s a good chance that’s exactly what they’re looking for. And who better to point to these deals than the entity that created Cyber Monday in the first place?

You might say that this result would be at its most relevant right around the time when it was banned by Bing. People searching for “cyber monday” in June might be looking more for information about the day (like numbers or advice on preparation for example), but it they’re searching for it just ahead of Cyber Monday or on Cyber Monday itself, the probability that they’re looking for deals goes up.

This would have probably caused a much greater stink if this happened with Google rather than Bing, especially considering all of the antitrust talk and scrutiny that surrounds Google these days. In fact, Sullivan noted in his article that some have even accused Bing of demoting sites in favor of driving traffic to its own Bing Shopping results. But Bing doesn’t have nearly the search market share that Google does, so the impact probably wasn’t as great as it could have been otherwise.

But that’s not to say there was no impact. Bing’s market share has grown steadily since its launch, and it also powers Yahoo’s results.

This year, Cyber Monday was the biggest online spending day in history in the U.S. There were a lot of businesses competing for that money. It makes you wonder how this might have affected sales for the businesses featuring deals on CyberMonday.com. These are all third-party businesses mind you. It’s not like it’s just Shop.org getting affected here.

On top of that, a portion of the proceeds from the purchases made from the CyberMonday.com site go to support a scholarship fund for students pursuing careers in the e-commerce industry.

This algorithm adjustment may have actually affected student financial aid.

To review what Bing had to day about it: “In an effort to protect our users some questionable domains may have been demoted or removed that some may consider legitimate sites.”

Yes. Some may consider CyberMonday.com from Shop.org from the National Retail Federation a legitimate site.

Apparently Bing does too, since it’s back in the search results, with about a year to go before it’s at its most relevant.

Did Bing mess up here? Tell us what you think in the comments.

$18.7 billion has already been spent online during the holiday season to date – a 15% increase compared to last year. There were three days last week that surpassed $1 billion in spending. Cyber Monday, of course, was the largest at $1.25 billion.

Tuesday hit $1.12 billion. Wednesday hit $1.03 billion. These three days were three of the four heaviest online spending days in history, comScore says. The other one was Cyber Monday last year.

“Cyber Monday kicked the week off with a bang as consumers opened their wallets to the tune of $1.25 billion, but it was only the beginning of a very strong week of online holiday spending,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Tuesday and Wednesday followed with billion dollar spending days, helping Cyber Week reach a record weekly total of nearly $6 billion in spending. As the deals from this week expire, it will be important to see the degree to which consumers return to the same retailers to continue their holiday shopping, thereby helping improve retailers’ profit margins, or if we experience a pullback in consumer spending – which has occurred in previous years – before promotional offers and spending intensity pick back up in earnest around mid-December.”

Here’s a year-to-year comparison:

Free shipping has clearly played a big role in all of this. Here’s another look at the growth of this:

Here’s a chart showing how important this is to people:

“Free shipping is one of the most important incentives that online retailers must provide during the holiday season to ensure that shoppers will convert into buyers,” added Mr. Fulgoni. “Consumers have come to expect free shipping during the holiday promotion periods, and retailers, in turn, have realized that they must offer this incentive if they want to maximize their share of consumer spending – especially at the outset of the shopping season. In fact, more than three-quarters of consumers say that free shipping is important to them when making an online purchase, and nearly half say they will abandon their shopping cart at checkout if they find free shipping is not being offered.”

As the holidays get closer and closer, I’m guessing speedy delivery will continue to rise in importance to consumers. This is probably one reason that Google is looking at getting more involved in this area (to compete with Amazon).

According to a comScore report, in relation to online retail, spending during Black Friday saw an increase of 26 percent when compared to 2010. The total for online Black Friday spending, by comScore’s numbers, is $816 million. Not only are the numbers promising, but the methods in which online shoppers conduct their business is expanding beyond the home/work computer.

Mobile devices in reference to online shopping is increasing as well. In fact, the rise in mobile technology adoption gives potential online shoppers a degree of flexibility the home computers do not. No longer are you required to be at computer at a certain times, all because of the freedom these mobile devices provide. In fact, the impact of mobile devices in regards to this flexibility have some speculating about the death of Cyber Monday, because shoppers are no longer required to be tethered to a non-mobile computing device:

But the loss of Cyber Monday, which got its name when most people had to go into their offices to shop online, shows how far broadband, and now mobile, have come.

In reference to the loss of Cyber Monday, Giga Om’s article offers an update:

Akamai noted on Monday night that Thanksgiving evening experienced the peak traffic of the holiday season, making this the year that turkey day topped Black Friday’s and Cyber Monday’s peaks.

This makes sense considering the explosive growth of smartphones. With these connected devices, users no longer have to worry about running to their workstation or their home rig to take part in these online sales, and because of the increased accessibility, more and more online shoppers don’t have to wait until they are in front of a computer to participate.

Over at Shop.org, the mobile device holiday shopping increase was forecast thusly:

One quarter of Cyber Monday shoppers anticipate using mobile devices. The real standout this year, of course, is the continued rise of mobile devices for Cyber Monday shoppers: 14.5% of all Cyber Monday shoppers expect to use a smartphone and/or tablet device for at least part of their shopping, double the number we saw last year (6.9%). Among online shoppers this year, however, that’s actually a whopping 23.8%. For a retailer, that’s another golden opportunity to proactively make an offer to a specific customer, especially if that retailer can tap into location-based mobile advertisements with a specific call to action.

Clearly, people want to spend during the Thanksgiving sales season, which kicks off the holiday shopping season on an annual basis. Furthermore, with more and more consumers acquiring mobile devices, it only makes sense that mobile device shopping increases as well.

While this is becoming less and less of an issue, especially for the bigger consumption sites, it is still wise to make sure your site is mobile-friendly, especially if you’re planning on capitalizing on this willingness to spend.

View more daily infographic round-ups here.

Black Friday spending:

Cyber Monday:

© 2011 YouNeverLose.com

The Math-Science shortage:

Created by: Online Engineering Degree

In the years since its inception, Cyber Monday has grown to rival Black Friday as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, with some speculating that, at least in terms of year-to-year growth, it may even surpass its older cousin in coming years. Black Friday sales grew far more than expected this year, suggesting that Cyber Monday figures can expect to see a similar jump, if not larger.

How much of your shopping will you be doing on Cyber Monday? Let us know in the Comments.

Social networking sites like Twitter are awash with buzz about Cyber Monday. While most tweets are from retailers advertising their deals, or from price aggregators promising to help find the best prices, others range in topic from the humorous…

To the cautionary…

Nearly every retailer, from the smallest to the largest, has at least some sort of Cyber Monday special going, offering sometimes enormous discounts on a wide array of products. Some of the best deals are to be found in electronics. For example, Amazon has reduced the price of its Kindle DX reader by $150, and is offering massive discounts on a variety of gadgets, video games, and movies. Data obtained from PriceGrabber.com shows that these categories are some of the areas showing the most significant sales growth this year are already.

Here’s an interesting infographic, courtesy of Daily Infographic:



But they did begin a helpful initiative that should coax hesitant buyers into snatching up smaller items via the online store.

Starting today, Apple is offering free shipping on everything – no matter how inexpensive. Usually, you have to hit $50 before Apple’s free shipping kicks in. This could boost online sales of smaller items like cases, chargers and other accessories.

Although Apple is not participating in the Cyber Monday deals, they did have a sale on Black Friday both online and in-store. That one-day-only sale saw discounts as small at $10 to discounts totaling $100 on larger items like MacBooks. From the initial reports, it looks like that one-day sale was a success. Apple sources have reported that the day was the biggest day in terms of retail sales in company’s history.

It’s a running joke that Apple rarely gives anyone a discount on anything – and there is some merit to it. Their Black Friday deals weren’t as ambitious as some other retailers. And they aren’t participating in any deals today, on the biggest online shopping day of the season.

But free shipping on everything is helpful and it might make it easier for people to order smaller items without feeling like they are wasting money.

The free shipping period ends December 22nd.

Just to put it in perspective for you, last year’s online Black Friday sales only increased 9 percent from the previous year.

comScore data showed that fifty million Americans shopped online on Black Friday, an increase of 35 percent from 2010.

comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni stated:

“With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it’s clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels.”

The top five retail websites on Black Friday were Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.

“Amazon.com once again led the pack, with 50 percent more visitors than any other retailer, while also showing the highest growth rate versus last year,” said Fulgoni.

With Cyber Monday looming, Fulgoni predicted another record setting day, which is saying something. Sales from Cyber Monday last year topped $1 billion, which made it the largest online spending day ever, according to comScore.

What’s your prediction for Cyber Monday? Leave us a comment below with your guesstimate.

Are you running Cyber Monday deals this year? Let us know in the comments.

comScore put out a report looking at why Cyber Monday is becoming more important to holiday season e-commerce.

“Since its inception, we have witnessed an extremely strong growth in Cyber Monday spending with sales more than doubling from 2005-2010, with a compound annual growth rate of 16% during that timeframe. 2010 was an especially important year in the history of Cyber Monday as online spending reached $1.028 billion, the first time on record that a single day had eclipsed the $1 billion spending threshold,” says comScore’s Andrew Lipsman. “ It also achieved another landmark by finishing as the heaviest online spending day of the year for the first time in history!”

“We at comScore have spent a lot of time in past holiday seasons dispelling the notion that Cyber Monday was the heaviest online spending day of the year, and just when it seemed that message finally began to sink in, Cyber Monday has a banner year and jumps to the top of the ranking,” says Lipsman. “Interestingly, from 2005-2007 Cyber Monday wasn’t even close to the top of the ranking, going from the 8th heaviest spending day to 12th to 9th. But in 2008, Cyber Monday’s overall importance in the context of the holiday shopping season began to change as it surged up the ranking to #3. The following year it ranked as the second heaviest spending day, and finally culminated in 2010 assuming the top position for the year.”

BIA/Kelsey and ConStat put out a report about how local businesses are expected to use digital tools gto lure shoppers on Cyber Monday (in addition to Black Friday and Small Business Saturday). According to that, SMBs have allocated 37% of their total ad and promotional budget to digital/online media in the last 12 months. On average, they intend to increase their digital/online spending in the next 12 months to 40 percent of their total ad budget.

“The data indicate SMBs are getting smarter in their use of digital and online media,” said Steve Marshall, director of research, BIA/Kelsey. “They’re focused on strengthening and enhancing their digital presence, engaging customers with social media and empirically measuring the performance of their online advertising initiatives.”

Of SMBs with an online presence (website, landing page, Facebook page, Google Places page, etc.):

• 69 percent report they update their online presence at least once a month
• 27 percent pay for regular assistance in updating their online presence
• 25 percent report using an Internet service or program to help monitor or manage customer ratings, reviews or comments about their businesses

Tips

Lisa Barone provides some Cyber Monday tips at Small Business Trends. While she elaborates on each one, they essentially boil down to: promote site wide sales, reward fans, throw a Twitter party, and go viral with email marketing.

Heather Clancy in ZDNet’s Small Business Matters column suggests: planning for traffic to double year-over-year, testing throughput and considering hosting static content elsewhere for the peak traffic period, keeping tabs on visitor stats, keeping mobile in mind, and finding a flexible cloud infrastructure provider.

Sounds like good advice to me.

Is your site prepared for Cyber Monday? Let us know in the comments.

Beginning at 5am, LivingSocial will begin the Black Friday deals, and from there will continue into Saturday, Sunday and into Cyber Monday. There will apparently be a whole new round of deals announced on Monday.

This initiative allows for national companies to get in on the daily deals action, while the upside for LivingSocial is that it gets to participate (in a slightly roundabout way) in the biggest shopping weekend known to man. According to SVP of national Sales Mitch Spolan, “the service isn’t changing its local-business focus, but gets the opportunity to offer something special nationally from time to time.”

So far, businesses signed on for the deals include Verizon, Sketchers, EA games, BlueFly, Skype, and Wine.com. Like the daily local deals, most of these offerings will be of the 50%-off variety. For instance, one of the deals set to begin on Cyber Monday is $40 for $80 worth of merchandise on Wine.com.

You can check the LivingSocial Black Friday page on Friday for information on the specific deals.

How much shopping are you planning on doing this upcoming weekend? Do you plan to tap any of these LivingSocial deals? Let us know in the comments.

“The 2010 online holiday shopping season was a memorable one in which we saw spending rebound strongly from the recession of 2008 and 2009, and slightly exceed even our early expectations,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “We saw spending increase at a rate of 12 percent for the season, outpacing our forecasted 11-percent growth, and set a new holiday season record as total e-commerce spending reached $32.6 billion.”

“This year, retailers targeted many of their promotions even earlier than usual and reaped the benefits. The season will be remembered for an exceptional Cyber Monday, which was the first billion-dollar spending day in history, and the first time we’ve witnessed Cyber Monday rank as the heaviest online spending day of the year. And of course, we cannot forget the impact of free shipping, which was used in more than half of all e-commerce transactions this season, up significantly from last year.”

For the first time since comScore began tracking ecommerce activity in 2001, Cyber Monday (Monday, Nov. 29) ranked as the heaviest online spending day of the year at $1.028 billion. It also ranks as the first online spending day on record to surpass the $1 billion spending mark. Green Monday (Monday, Dec. 13) ranked as the second heaviest day at $954 million, followed by Monday, December 6 at $943 million. Free Shipping Day (Friday, Dec. 17) ranked fourth at $942 million, while Thursday, December 16 rounded out the top five with $930 million. Eight days in total surpassed $900 million in spending this holiday season.