Cyber crowds expected for Cyber Monday
Almost 130 million consumers expect to shop online Nov. 26, this year’s Cyber Monday, according to a survey conducted for Shop.org by BIGinsight.
Despite record levels of online spending over the Black Friday weekend, 129.2 million shoppers say they’ll head to retailers’ websites on Cyber Monday in 2012, up from the 122.8 million who shopped last year, and the 106.9 million who shopped on Cyber Monday on 2010.
Eager to meet consumers’ demands, 85% of retailers surveyed will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday.
“Whether from the couch or the cubicle, online shoppers will make this Cyber Monday bigger than ever,” said Shop.org executive director, Vicki Cantrell. “Retailers have honed and improved their websites, mobile sites and social media outreach to be better than ever.”
The number of shoppers planning to use their smartphones or other mobile device this Cyber Monday increased to 20.4 million this year, from 17.8 million in 2011, a 14.4% jump. In just three years, the number of U.S. consumers saying they would use their mobile device to shop on Cyber Monday has skyrocketed from just 3.6 million (3.8%) in 2009 to 20.4 million (15.8%) in 2012.
While the majority of Cyber Monday shoppers will make purchases from their home computer (88.0%, or 113.7 million people), nearly 16 million will also use their computers at work to shop this year (12.4%). The Shop.org survey estimated that nearly 72 million Americans would shop from work at some point during the holiday season.
While many retailers expect to see sales and traffic spike over lunch hours, Cyber Monday shoppers plan to go online throughout the day. According to the survey, 44.4% of Cyber Monday shoppers plan to hit the Web early in the morning, with more than one-third of (36.8%) planning to shop in the late morning. Additionally, nearly three in 10 Cyber Monday shoppers (29.2%) will shop in the early evening.
The survey, conducted Nov. 23 to 24, 2012, by BIGinsight for Shop.org, polled 4,005 consumers. Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, is a leading membership community for digital retail.