Cyber Monday

One of the real advantages of marketing to people via the Web is you can often reach them at work as well as at home. Clear proof of this fact can be seen with Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is the first big work day after the Thanksgiving Weekend, and as a result, online sales begin their large holiday surge that day.

In an article about Cyber Monday on CNET, Jay McIntosh, Americas director of retail and consumer products at Ernst & Young says, “Most people who shop online do it at work, not at home….Despite rising rates of high-speed home Internet connections, work connections tend to be faster than those at home.”

Another MarketWatch article on Cyber Monday lists some of the biggest shopping sites. Not a lot of surprises here. In first place is eBay followed by Amazon, WalMart, Target, Apple, Shopzilla, Overstock.com and Yahoo Shopping.

Online sales for this holiday season are expected to reach nearly $20 billion. That is a 24 percent increase over a year ago.