Cyber Monday Poised For Growth?

With Black Friday weekend seeing strong e-commerce growth last year, Cyber Monday too posted impressive gains. In fact, Cyber Monday accounted for $836 million in e-commerce sales in 2008, up an impressive 15% over the previous year. [1] This indicates that consumers have become increasingly familiar with this major online shopping day.

First coined in 2005 by Shop.org based on research that showed that 77% of online retailers reported a significant increase in sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2004, Cyber Monday has only gained in popularity over the past few years. In fact, earlier this season we saw early-than-expected consumer interest - searches for "Cyber Monday" began upticking in mid-September versus mid-October in previous years. Likewise, using Google Insights for Search, we find that search interest in "Cyber Monday" has increased steadily each year, starting in 2005.

Over the last 30 days, top rising searches have focused on Cyber Monday sales, deals, ads, and key retailer offerings, reflecting a research-oriented consumer. Searches for 'Black Monday' also prevail, indicating there is still opportunity for Cyber Monday to be better understood by consumers.

With these year-over-year increases in traffic and early upticks in Cyber Monday searches, is this online holiday poised to be bigger than ever?

Posted by Eric Lopez, the Google Retail Team