Shopping@Work
Joining “Black Friday” in the list of shopping occasions is “Cyber Monday,” the November 27 kickoff to the online holiday shopping season and one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. (Last year only December 12, the last day for free shipping was bigger.) But there’s one big difference: Cyber Monday isn’t exactly a holiday so most shoppers are actually at “work.” Of course, we all know we only shop during lunch, right? “Online retailers typically see huge surges in website traffic during traditional lunch hours,” said Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org. “Shopping at work can be a great way for many consumers to complete holiday buying without having to worry about sneaky gift recipients looking over their shoulders.” (As far as sneaky bosses are concerned, you are on your own.) Cyber Monday sales will likely be even bigger this year as retailers launch special lunch hour promotions and discounts to turn browsers into buyers. The number of people who will shop online for holiday gifts from work is expected to surge to 61.0 million people this year, up from 51.7 million people last year, according to a recent Shop.org survey conducted by BIGresearch. In fact, 51% of consumers with Internet access at work plan to do some holiday shopping online from the office, up from 44.7 percent last year. To make it easier for shoppers to cram their entire Christmas list into one lunch-hour session, Shop.org has created CyberMonday.com. At this site, which launches today, nearly 400 online retailers will be posting holiday promotions. (Basically the site is a huge array of banner ads.) When shoppers make a purchase through CyberMonday.com, retailers will donate a percentage of that sale to Shop.org’s Ray M. Greenly Scholarship Fund, which helps students pursuing careers in eCommerce. So they can learn even more efficient ways to separate you from your paycheck while you are earning it.