Yesterday saw the Christmas shopping season start with a bang, as millions of people across the UK went online to get their gifts sorted for the big day! It’s estimated that £450m was spent over the day online. As more and more of us start shopping online, there’s never been a better time to launch an online shop.
“Cyber Monday” as it’s known takes place on the first Monday of December, and sees a flurry of online activity as shoppers aim to order their gifts in time for Christmas. It’s estimated that a staggering £312,500 a minute is spent online during the day, with nearly half a billion being spent by the end of the day.
“Cyber Monday” is a relatively new phenomenon, and is a response to the US based “Black Friday”, which targets shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving with cut-price offers on goods. Whilst “Cyber Monday” has yet to hit the frenzied heights seen in stores across the Atlantic, the financial boost is just as amazing.
Exact figures are yet to be released, but major retailers like John Lewis and Argos were expecting a lot of visits to their sites. Argos are expecting to deliver 2m packages a day in the run-up to the festive season.
But you don’t have to be a large, national retailer to take advantage of the “Cyber Monday” madness. The Manchester Evening News carried an article on their website, about smaller retailers like Toxic Fox, What I Always Wanted and AO.com who have all seen their online sales boosted by “Cyber Monday”.
One retailer, quoted in the article, described “Cyber Monday” as a “phenomenon.” He said, “our sales … were up by more than 50%. Traffic was also up by 40%.”
Last year we wrote a blog about the advantages of online shopping vs store shopping. You can have a read of that blog here, but for those of you with short memories here’s a few of the reasons why online shopping is so popular, especially around this time of year!
So Much More To Choose From – The sheer scope of the Internet means that whatever it is you’re after, it’s only a matter of clicks away. High-street shops don’t offer as much of a range, and even if they do have the item you want in stock, then you might find that there’s not an endless supply waiting for you.
Cheaper To Shop Online – Online shopping has fewer overheads than other forms of retail – less staff, insurance, no large retail spaces to rent – and that means they pass the savings onto customers. As a result, many of the products you can buy online are almost half the price of what you can buy instore.
Much More Convenient – You can shop online, whatever the weather. You haven’t got to worry about the weather, or how you’re going to cart everything home. Your orders are brought to your door, and in some cases can even be gift-wrapped!
This time of year is the time where your website comes into it’s own. A good online shop could end up making you a fortune in online sales, and also save you time and staff costs.
There’s never been a better time to launch an online shop, and with Living Media, you can be in a position to take advantage of “Cyber Monday” in 2014!
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