Black Friday & Cyber Monday
As Thanksgiving approaches so does the retail industry’s most important time of year, the holiday shopping season. Black Friday, the official start of the holiday season is just a couple of weeks away and retailers are gearing up for this important shopping event. In a year where the economy has affected so many things expect a significant amount of attention to be placed on Black Friday this year as it will help to predict the outcome of the holiday shopping season. As big as Black Friday has become for the retail industry, Cyber Monday is what industry expects look at in order to predict the season’s online holiday shopping sales.
With a lot riding on these two shopping days a number of new Web sites and tools are popping up all geared to help consumers find the best bargains available. The sites Dealnews.com and BlackFriday.org have been tracking Black Friday sales for years, however, each of them are implementing new technologies this year. Dealnews.com recently launched its second iPhone app. The application allows users to track Black Friday sales as well as add items to a customized shopping list. An interesting trend happening on both these sites are the ways in which they are using social media. On Dealnews.com, viewers of certain deals can post links to the offers on their Facebook page; while BlackFriday.org is using social media to stay informed by watching consumer’s Twitter posts.
As consumers look to social media to stay informed on the latest Black Friday news, advertisers and companies are going to be quick to make sure they are posting all their messages on the social networks. One network that all retailers want to be a part of is cheaptweet.com. Cheaptweet.com focuses directly on deals that are posted on Twitter and the site offers a list of national retailer’s offers and local buys. Another similar Web site is RetailMeNot.com which will actually aggregate all Black Friday and Cyber Monday coupons, deals and promotions in one place. RetailMeNot.com also features a live Twitter feed offering up the latest deals to subscribing users.
Finally, the Monday immediately following retailers largest day is commonly referred to as Cyber Monday. The term Cyber Monday originated in 2005, when 77% of the e-commerce community noticed a significant increase in sales activity on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Over the past couple of years, retailers have been offering special discounts and deals on Cyber Monday to help increase overall sales. The Web site http://www.cybermonday.com/ is your place to find all the information you need in order to stay on top of all online holiday sales.
It has never been easier to save money than now with all of these new technologies that are available to consumers. An educated consumer who does their proper research and who puts in some effort can really save a substantial amount of money on these two days. As I clicked around, I saw a number of great deals including this one for Black Friday at Best Buy, a 15.5 inch Sony Vaio Laptop with Windows 7 will be going for only $399, but you may have to get there at 5 in the morning to take advantage of the offer.
Tags: Black Friday, Cyber Monday
