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Consumers are more engaged this holiday season partly due to online promotions over Thanksgiving week, which offered discounts from 30 to 70 percent off products along with free shipping.
What's different is how early the season started, and the level of promotional activity driven by social marketing.
"Many retailers started promoting earlier this year with pre-season promotions such as one- or two-day only sales to stimulate impulse purchases," said Fiona Dias, executive vice president of partner strategy and marketing for GSI Commerce Inc.
"During Thanksgiving week, it was a consumer bonanza with free shipping site-wide, deep discounts, free gifts with purchase, door-busters, and a host of promotions that drove retailers' businesses and delighted customers."
A survey by Harris Interactive done on behalf of GSI found that convenience would be major factor in driving people to shop online. Among U.S. adults, 61 percent cited "avoiding crowds and lines" and 58 percent said "being able to shop after-hours, when traditional offline stores are closed" as the main reasons for shopping online.
"Online retailers pulled out all the stops, offering ballistic Cyber Monday sales, signifying how important the online shopping channel has become to so many Americans," said Dias.
"Even Cyber Monday has changed this year. Online sales, historically only offered on Cyber Monday, started one day earlier and are rapidly being extended into 'Cyber week' promotions."
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Cyber Monday Marks the Beginning
Great post about how Cyber Monday has evolved this year. Our Online Spending Index indicated that 41% of consumers thought of Cyber Monday as the start of the holiday shopping season over a month ago. I suspect an even greater number is taking advantage of it. I'm with eBillme, and we’re seeing some amazing deals through our merchants. We’re an online payment option and on our website you can get a mail-in rebate for $25 just for using us at the checkout (on purchases of over $100), on top of the discounts from the retailer. We’re very interested to see how things shake out in the industry this week compared to last year. Thanks for the post.