You made it through Thanksgiving Day’s turkey + carb helpings, but the real feat is that you managed to hang in there through Black Friday. Now it’s time to kick back in your most comfy clothes — or maybe more realistically — secretly shop Cyber Monday while at work.
The relatively new e-commerce shopping day now directly competes with Black Friday – which is traditionally considered the start of the holiday buying season and when brick-and-mortar stores offer discounts.
Cyber Monday is when discounts come via the internet. 🤑
Cyber Monday fast facts:
🎁 The National Retail Federation’s Elle Davis first coined the phrase Cyber Monday in 2005.
🎁 Cyber Monday was almost called Blue Monday – a play off of Black Friday but blue to represent blue hyperlinks.
🎁 Why Monday and not the Saturday after Black Friday? Because people shop from the office. Back in the olden days, people had slower, dial-up internet at home and faster, quieter access at the office.
🎁 Cyber Monday is sometimes dubbed the busiest online shopping day in the U.S., but that’s only sort of true, sometimes. If you really need to know, Snopes.com has the nitty gritty details. It was true in 2017.
By the numbers:
💸 $6.59 billion. This is how much money U.S. consumers spent last year on Cyber Monday.
💸 16.8%. This is the percent increase over 2016’s Cyber Monday spending total.
💸 $2 billion. American consumers spent a record-breaking amount on smartphones last year.
P.S. – For those of you who’d rather shop local + in-person, we’ll have your guide to Holiday Markets in Columbia on Wednesday. 🛍
Cyber Monday deal codes:
💸 Esquire has a list of discount codes for your savings.
💸Barnes and Noble announced its deals here.
💸 USA Today has a roundup that includes Cyber Monday discounts.
Travel deals:
Some of the best gifts can be trips. 🛫 Forbes has a breakdown of travel deals.
Pro-tips:
👍 Don’t get sucked into the sales frenzy at the cost of your sanity. It’s a traditional sales tactic to scare shoppers into thinking they will only have one chance at getting the best deal. CNET’s Rick Broida assures us that he’s a “cheapskate” and he promises there will be more deals.
👍 Check to see if it’s really a deal. Broida provided this link, which is mainly about Black Friday, but he said it works for Cyber Monday, too.
👍 If you’re on a budget, know what you want to buy before you start browsing to avoid impulse spending. U.S. News and World Report has some additional tips for getting the most out of Cyber Monday.
National stores expected to have Cyber Monday deals:
As of press time not every store had publicized its deals, but visit this site to see which stores have released ads about their Cyber Monday specials.
