In years past Cyber Monday received a lot of coverage from mainstream media which culminated with the day itself – the first Monday after Thanksgiving.
CyberMonday
However this year I don’t recall seeing or hearing much news about Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday 2009
It will be interesting to see after Cyber Monday has came and went this year whether or not the term and its significance will mirror the interest or lack thereof found in the Google Trends data above.
Google Insights for Search compares overall and regional search interest between the holiday retail shopping terms Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and refers to the first day of Christmas shopping at traditional brick and mortar stores, whereas Cyber Monday occurs exclusively online the Monday after Thanksgiving and kicks off the increase in internet holiday shopping.
Google Insights for Search can contrast searcher interest in two up to five terms from within different time periods.
The graph below show search interest in Black Friday 2007 vs. Cyber Monday 2007.
Clearly search interest was much greater for Black Friday during 2007 than Cyber Monday.
Black Friday 2007 vs. Cyber Monday 2007
Although we haven’t reached the 2008 year end yet, it looks like Black Friday will again receive considerably more search interest in 2008 than Cyber Monday.
Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday
With Black Friday rapidly approaching, searchers are mostly searching for Black Friday Ads, Black Friday Sales, Black Friday Deals and both Walmart’s and Target’s Black Friday sales.
Regional search interest in Black Friday appears greater from within the central United States than from states on either the East or West coasts.
Black Friday Regional Interest
With consumers not quite as familiar with the term Cyber Monday as Black Friday, searchers confuse the two terms and search for “Black Monday” more than they search for Cyber Monday.
As with Black Friday, the majority of searches related to Cyber Monday are related Cyber Monday Ads, Deals and Sales.
Unlike Black Friday, search interest in Cyber Monday presently only comes from a handful of states – the states on average with the largest populations.
Cyber Monday Regional Interest
Because consumers aren’t clear which is the correct term – Black Monday or Cyber Monday – Internet Retailers who incorporate both Black and Cyber into their holiday online ads may see more traffic and thus sales than retailers who do not.
Shoppers hit the pavement en masse the day after Thanksgiving ( Black Friday ) but they click their computers en masse the Monday (Cyber Monday: December 1, 2008) after Thanksgiving when they return back to work.
Cyber Monday is considered the day when holiday shopping season clicks into high gear.
The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog has distilled several consumer related factors every retailer should take into consideration during their preparation for this holiday season.
1). “According to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, 40% of shoppers say that sales or promotions are the most important factors when determining where to shop for holiday gifts.
2). As the average consumer plans to spend $832.36 this holiday season and 44.2% of those consumers plan to buy items online.
3). As of mid-November, 72% of consumers have completed less than 10% of their shopping, while only 2.2% of shoppers are already finished.
Retailers who have also positioned their best offers online by Cyber Monday increase their odds for reaching and selling to the 44.2% of shoppers who plan to buy items this holiday season.
Microsoft’s adCenter blog has posted their 2008 Holiday Advertising Guide for search advertisers.
Some of the guide’s highlights:
“Online retail shopping increases in November by more than 100 percent.1 Adding promotions like free shipping make an enormous difference—57 percent of consumers stated that free shipping is a reason for them to shop online.2 For search and display advertising, online buying will peak on Black Friday, November 28, followed by Cyber Monday, December 1.”
1. Hitwise Market Share in all Categories, 2008.
2. iCongo/Harris Interactive, April 22, 2008.
Based on the percentage of consumer interest and barring any data suggesting otherwise, shipping costs appear to have become the largest remaining barrier to consumers shopping and buying online.
Can elimination of shipping costs insure and increase internet retailers sales prospects this 2008 holiday season?
As the largest online retailer, Amazon.com demonstrated their understanding of the power of free shipping by offering it during the 2007 holiday season.
Amazon is again offering free shipping this holiday shopping season with some conditions through their Amazon Prime Member program.
Amazon Prime
In this current economic climate, aren’t internet retailers who don’t follow Amazon’s lead by offering some type of free shipping risking transaction losses to internet retailers – like Amazon – who do?
According to Microsoft’s Holiday Advertising Guide and their traffic data from 2007, Internet retailers can expect four peak search traffic periods during this holiday season:
1. Black Friday
2. Cyber Monday
3. Holiday Crunch
4. Post Holiday
Holiday Search Traffic
Important search traffic dates for internet retailers this year will be:
1. Black Friday: November 28, 2008
2. Cyber Monday: December 1, 2008
3. Holiday Crunch: Occurs between December 4, 2008 and December 18, 2008
4. Post Holiday: Begins on December 26, 2008
Internet retailers who advertise free shipping this holiday season can forecast a larger percentage of transactions generated via search from within their market than internet retailers who don’t.
Search Marketing Communications 
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