'Cyber Monday' launches online shopping blitz
Last Updated: Monday, November 27, 2006 | 10:30 AM ET
CBC News
Online holiday shopping begins in earnest on Monday as consumers take part in something U.S. retail analysts call "Cyber Monday," the busiest online shopping day of the year.
Cyber Monday is the first Monday after "Black Friday" — the day U.S. shoppers on their Thanksgiving break flood stores searching for holiday deals.
In an interview with itbusiness.ca, J.C. Williams Group retail analyst Jim Okamura noted that Canadians don't observe American Thanksgiving, so this Monday "is just another Monday in Canada."
Still, Canadian internet users should expect a greater push from now until Christmas from retailers promoting online shopping.
"From here on out, the stakes start really increasing. You see the retailers use their web channel so much more actively to promote sales, to promote key items, to drive traffic into the stores," Okamura told the technology news site.
Online retailers are expecting sales to increase by about 20 per cent this year, or about the same amount as in 2005, according to The New York Times.
The paper quotes Patti Freeman, an analyst with JupiterResearch, a technology consulting firm, who predicts online sales in the U.S. this year will reach $100 billion US for the first time.
Online sales, she added, would probably constitute six per cent of total holiday sales.
Many retailers are offering special online deals, but increased traffic is likely to strain servers, which happened on Friday.
Heavy traffic disrupted Wal-Mart's website for much of Friday and Disney's website had problems handling increased demand.
Amazon.com also suffered brief outages on Thursday, because it was running a Thanksgiving Day sale on the Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console.
Rhonda Katz, a Toronto-based family therapist and consultant, says she suspects more and more people are turning to online shopping as a means to escape the hurly-burly of holiday crowds.
"You don't get claustrophobic, you don't have to fight the crowds, the lines, the incessant music and the parking," she told itbusiness.ca.
With files from the Canadian PressShare Tools
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