Monday 28 November 2011

Record sales expected on Cyber Monday

PARKER COUNTY — With the chaos of Black Friday shopping finished, shoppers have another, calmer opportunity for sales with Cyber Monday.


The retail holiday began around 2005, when online shopping also became popular.


According to comScore, an online source for examining digital business, studies found that last year, more than 107 million consumers spent more than $1,028 billion online during Cyber Monday, a 20 percent increase in sales from the previous year.


“Shopping online is a huge convenience because a lot of people don’t want to get out and fight the traffic,” Casey Cooper, store manager for Teskey’s Saddle Shop, said.


Teskey’s is one of many local businesses around Parker County that has an online retail presence as well as a physical store location.


“We redid our website two years ago and we noticed the growth it’s given us,” Cooper said. “We had seasonal sales before, on a lower scale, but this is the first year that we’ve really gone all out.”


Like Amazon.com and other online shops, Teskey’s is promoting new discounted items every two hours, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday. Deals include 25 percent off outerwear, knives, felt hats, boots and jeans, 10 percent off ropes and 35 percent off Teskey’s branded tack. Free shipping is also offered on orders totaling more than $250.


“You get almost as good of a deal sitting in your house on the computer as you do getting out in traffic and fighting the crowds,” Cooper said.


According to comScore Black Friday (November 25) saw $816 million in online sales, a 26 percent increase over a year ago. Thanksgiving day also saw an increase of 18 percent to $479 million.


“Despite some analysts’ predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce with more than $800 million in spending,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
"We now turn our attention to Cyber Monday, a day that Shop.org says will see eight-in-ten retailers running special online promotions. Last year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest day of online spending ever, with sales exceeding $1 Billion, and we fully expect to see another record set this year.”


Last year the start of the holiday shopping season also marked one of the largest crackdowns on online piracy and counterfeiting to date by the Obama administration. Federal officials will announce the latest actions taken against online piracy on Monday.


Last year Cyber Monday sales surpassed $1 billion and analysts have predicted a 20 percent increase this year. Amazon.com was the top online retailer on Black Friday, followed by Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple.

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