Despite the marketing push that we have to endure every Thanksgiving weekend surrounding the “biggest shopping weekend of the year,” it turns out that 84% of Cyber Monday shoppers had a bad experience in 2014, which they say will deter them from logging on in 2015.
Score one for the Charlie Brown Christmas camp, i.e., those against crass commercialism.
According to Blue Yonder, 44% surfed the internet for deals on Cyber Monday last year, i.e., the Monday after Thanksgiving. This year, only 37% of respondents will be shopping then.
Nearly half of respondents found that e-commerce websites were too slow or crashed, a third found the experience “too much of a headache,” and a greedy fifth felt the discounts were not enough, with one in 10 preferring the January sales.
But, most importantly, the findings also show that two in five (42%) people have been discouraged from shopping online on Cyber Monday because of the recent cyber-scares from big brands. This is likely to have the biggest impact on Cyber Monday revenue, with as much as 40% avoiding the day due to security concerns.
Predictably, those crazy Millennials—the most sought-after demographic for marketers—are the most tuned into the dangers: A full 55% said they will think twice about shopping on Cyber Monday due to the security worries, versus 35% of the over-55s.
In the UK, Cyber Monday is a thing despite the fact that there is no Thanksgiving weekend to shamelessly hang holiday-themed sales around. But hey, what better way to celebrate Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Satan’s Rule on Earth, or whatever, than going out and spending lots and lots and lots of money with American big-box stores and retailers that typically make their employees work on holidays and offer little to no paid maternity leave? Go globalism!
I will just go on record as opining that Charlie Brown would most certainly disapprove.
Blue Yonder found that here, Londoners are the most concerned, with nearly 60% of them dissuaded from shopping on Cyber Monday. That’s versus 35% in Scotland and the Northwest.
But, all of that said, it’s not like Cyber Monday won’t still be big, big business. Consumers are estimated to spend £4.9bn on internet shopping over the entire five-week festive period, while Cyber Monday is billed to pull in £943m in online sales alone.
Photo © Guo ZhongHua