Black Friday has become something of a holiday season legend, known as the day when retail companies are back “in the black” – in other words, making a profit for the year. It’s also the official kick-off of the holiday shopping season. But you know all that.
What you may not know is that after the weekend, as people return to work, they don’t stop shopping – instead, they log on to the internet and check out online stores, many of which now offer deals specifically in anticipation of this occurrence. It’s become known as Cyber Monday, and it’s rapidly getting as big as Black Friday itself.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise to regular readers of this blog; you know that the transformation of the marketplace that’s been engendered by the internet is well underway and shows no signs of slowing down. Cyber Monday is yet another such indicator; this year’s event is expected to be the biggest single day of online shopping in history. The continued increase in smartphone adoption and demographics that are increasingly comfortable performing transactions online are lending strength to what I believe to be a permanent shift in the business landscape.
Cyber Monday may be a holiday shopping tradition, but its explosive growth should drive home the lesson that the successful business must be engaged with an online audience in order to succeed in the changing environment.
