Mixed Messages from Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the new big retail shopping day conducted online the Monday following the traditional Black Friday retail shopping day. Typically, the results from Cyber Monday tend to serve as a predictor of the remaining online holiday shopping season. Cyber Monday just occurred on December 1st, and the message is somewhat mixed.

One positive note is that ecommerce order volumes rose approximately 14.5% among 25 major retail websites. On the flipside, the average value of each transaction fell 12%. Shoppers are on the prowl however. Akamai reported that traffic volume to North American retail sites surpassed 2007 numbers.

To help motivate consumers, over 80% of retailers planned on offering special Cyber Monday promotions. These include specific deals, email promotions, one-day sales and free shipping on all purchases.

More data has to come in, but it appears that online shoppers are still growing in numbers. Unfortunately, the state of our economy has put a damper on solid revenue growth. All the more reason to be creative with your promotions and utilize interactive tools such as email to deploy cost-effective marketing messages to specific target audiences. The current market dynamics are not kind to wasteful advertising, so if you own a retail ecommerce website, be smart this holiday season. The shoppers are there, you just have to hit them with the right message, at the right time and at the right place.