Keeping in the holiday spirit of senseless traditions that revolve around commerce, I want to wish you all a Happy Cyber Monday.
Of course, if you're reading this, that means you're not busy on one of the many e-commerce sites offering sweet deals. Or, you're utilizing the 30 seconds it takes for Amazon to process your order to read this blog. (Thanks!)
Either way, despite the fact that Cyber Monday is touted as the holiday for online retailers, we have reason to suspect it will be a short-lived phenomenon.
Oh, sure, there's still that whole "bad economy" thing that's holding some back from spending. ShopperTrak, a research firm that monitors sales, says that Black Friday sales rose just 0.5 percent, to $10.66 billion (as opposed to 3 percent last year).
But on the other hand, comScore shows that Black Friday was a great day for e-retailers, which saw $595 million in U.S. holiday spending online, an 11 percent increase from a year ago.
I like shopping, but I usually spend Black Friday under my bed, uneager to fight someone's grandma for the last $4 toaster at Target. But it seems there was little to fear, with much of the country turning to the Tubes for their holiday needs a few days before schedule.
Hmm... So if everyone's shopping online on Black Friday, where does that leave Cyber Monday?
There's reason to suspect that Cyber Monday may, alas, become obsolete. That isn't to say that today's sales will be abysmal: The Wall Street Journal reports that many in the industry are calling Black Friday's online sales an indication that Cyber Monday, too, will be a success, with comScore projecting sales at $900 million.
But in the future, there may be less of a need for this designated day for online shopping. First off, the great appeal to Cyber Monday was originally that online shoppers could mooch off their employers' high-speed Internet connections. But with broadband reaching more and more homes, that's less critical.
Further, with e-retailers flaunting their Cyber Monday-esque prices before Monday, there's no reason for anyone to wait.
Of course, whether it's Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Furry Tuesday (whatever), it matters not to the online retailers as long as they're making their sales. This does, however, matter to the old brick-and-mortar independent retailers -- the last ones standing in the physical world where human beings once roamed with open wallets.
Forgive me if I get a little sentimental here, but I find it difficult to watch independent stores close down in exchange for e-retailers and massive chains, like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and (:::shudder:::) Costco.
But as Cyber Monday faces potential extinction in favor of Cyber Every Day, what we're really at risk of losing here is not just a fun day to slack off at work -- but brick-and-mortar stores themselves, already struggling, as they are, to survive in a bad economy. As books and music go digital, and people find holiday shopping far too strenuous unless it's done via laptop, there's very little that can keep independent retailers alive... in 3D.
I don't know about you, but I want to be able to go to a bookstore to thumb through pages; to browse the aisles of a real-life establishment, rather than typing a product name into a search field. And I want that forever. But we're fast pulling back from the real-world, finding its practices (walking, interacting, etc.) too cumbersome. And, unfortunately, the way people choose to spend their money this holiday season will, in part, dictate what kind of world survives this recession.
(Oh, right. Happy Holidays.)
— Nicole Ferraro, Site Editor, Internet Evolution
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