Cyber Monday

Last Updated: November 25, 2012

Definition - What does Cyber Monday mean?

Cyber Monday is a term used to refer the first Monday following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday or the Monday that follows immediately after the Black Friday. Black Friday generally kicks off the traditional American holiday shopping season, and consumers rush to local stores to buy goods at heavily discounted prices. On Cyber Monday, this trend tends to move online as the consumers shop at work and in their homes in pursuit of the best online deals advertised by merchants and offered only for this day. Cyber Monday is a major shopping day for online retailers and follows Black Friday, which is the top shopping day of the year for brick-and-mortar stores.

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Techopedia explains Cyber Monday

Although Black Friday tends to be the highest-revenue day of the year for many brick-and-mortar stores, the number of online transactions that occur on this day has been rising as well. Cyber Monday's popularity and potential profitability is one of the reasons that brick-and-mortar stores have opened electronic storefronts. In order to capitalize on the number of people shopping online on this day, electronic retailers also make coupon codes heavily available for Cyber Monday sales.

According to comScore, Cyber Monday sales hit a record $1 billion in 2010, an increase of 16 percent over the year before. However, it is worth noting that couponing activities and discounts surged in 2010 as well, which likely contributed to some of the increase.

The term Cyber Monday was first coined by Shop.org in 2005. It is a relatively new phenomenon, at least compared to its older counterpart, Black Friday.