E-tailers Expect Record ‘Cyber Monday’ Shopping Revenues
E-tailers should see revenue on the “Cyber Monday” after Thanksgiving revenue set a record that could hit $924 million, comScore said. But familiarity with Web shopping shouldn’t lure consumers into letting their guard down, experts agreed.
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Cyber Monday was 2005’s 2nd biggest online sales day, according to a Shop.org/Shopzilla survey. Among retailers, about 2/3 (63%) saw “substantial growth” and 1/3 said sales were up more than 30% over the average day. Most (80%) American Internet users will buy online this holiday season, an AOL/Zogby poll found. Shop.org, the National Retail Federation’s online unit, claims to have coined the phrase “Cyber Monday.”
Online businesses are preparing for the rush. “Many retailers are planning to launch their online holiday campaigns on Cyber Monday,” Shop.org Research Exec. Dir. Scott Silverman told us. Both online-only retailers and brick & mortar stores’ sites offer free shipping that day, among other promotions, he said. Shop.org affiliate site CyberMonday.com lets visitors trawl for deals, with participating retailers donating to a fund for students interested in e-commerce.
Google Checkout will launch a discount information page on Cyber Monday - checkout.google.com/holiday.
Confidence in shopping online demands confidence in tools for verifying outlets’ legitimacy, said Better Business Bureau (BBB) Online Vp Steve Salters, and greater use of such tools is a “positive trend.”
Data security is probably the biggest reason people don’t shop online, MODASolutions CEO Marwan Forzley told us. But alternative payment methods are emerging to reduce the potential for ID theft.
Shoppers can use secure “e-vaults” to buy using an online account without providing financial information, said Forzley, whose company sells online payment tool Secure E- Bill.
Banks are “getting more involved” in alternative payment methods, especially in Canada, Salter said. The trend hasn’t taken off in the U.S., but by 2009, 50% of purchases here will use such methods, Forzley said.
Phishers won’t be taking a holiday, he said. The flood of legitimate ads and offers e-mailed by outlets could see imitation by scammers. To avoid phishing scams, “If you want to shop at Macy’s, go to Macy’s site instead of clicking on a link in an e-mail,” he said. Users should “clean up” cookies, activate antispyware software and check credit reports for bogus charges, he said.
The BBB wants consumers to “Shop with companies you trust, [look for] standards and other ’trust marks,’ like the BBB reliability seal,” Salter said. To earn the seal, a site must have been in business at least a year and must belong to a local bureau, adopt certain online practices and substantiate ad claims. More than 31,000 sites participate, according to BBBOnline.org.
“There’s a learning curve for online shoppers,” Salter said: “A number of people have been doing it for a few years, but there are still new folks coming to the Web.” Savvy shoppers expect data encryption and other controls, he said: “Shopping online is probably safer than ever.” -- Alexis Fabbri
Black Friday Notebook…
HDTV seekers didn’t have to brave pre-dawn store openings Fri. as most major retailers offered deals online to buyers willing to peck at keyboards and wait for delivery. At retail sites, 32W LCD HDTV prices fell below $500, with 50W plasma below $2,000. Indicating the intense online activity, Wal-Mart said its site was “temporarily unavailable due to high traffic volume,” at our deadline Fri. Strong promotions for HDTV outpaced other consumer electronics categories online, exception being Amazon.com’s news- generating bake-off for 1,000 Xbox 360 “core” systems at $100 each Thanksgiving Day. They sold in 29 sec., a spokesman told us. A message on the e-tail site thanked customers for voting the Xbox 360 for the online special: “Limited quantities of this item were deeply discounted on November 23 at 11 a.m. Pacific time, and sold out almost immediately.” By far, Target offered the largest online selection of discounted HDTVs in a search by our affiliate Consumer Electronics -- more than 2 dozen models in just the 32W and larger category. As at most retailers, 32W LCD led the parade, as Target cut an Olevia panel $300 to $699.99. At the high end, the retailer trimmed $600 from Samsung’s 61W rear projection DLP, offering the 1080p set for $2,399.99. That compared with a 720p version at $1,899.99, also $600 off list. Separately, Apple iPods typically aren’t advertised below SRP -- and NPD analyst Stephen Baker told us Apple doesn’t let retailers do so. But CC seemed to skirt the edict, with small cuts on various iPod SKUs in “unadvertised” online specials offered Fri. The 80 GB model, for example, was offered at $332.49 -- $17.50 off its $349.99 SRP. Baker said he believes that kind of promotion “counter-productive,” since a retailer “can’t drive anybody” into stores with it.