Black Friday 2009: Cyber Monday comes early; know when to buy

Updated

Thanksgiving has become known to shoppers as one of the best days to buy stuff online, but like most conventional wisdom about shopping it's actually not the best day to buy online.

According to research done by Yahoo, online retailers saw a 147% increase in purchases on Black Friday compared to other days in November, more than double the increase on Cyber Monday.

This may be news to most shoppers since Cyber Monday is hyped as the best day to buy stuff online but according to Dan de Grandpre, CEO of Dealnews.com, "It's been that way for years. Every year as far back as I recall, traffic to dealnews.com was higher on Black Friday than Cyber Monday." explaining that, "After all, that makes sense, since Cyber Monday is a recently invented "Hallmark holiday": an event made-up by retailers and industry groups to drive online sales."

According to de Grandpre, there's a simple reason why shoppers buy more on Black Friday; "the deals are better." The term Cyber Monday was coined to explain the rise in sales of online items as shoppers returned to offices to get the items they missed on Black Friday but with more retailers starting sales early Cyber Monday is no longer a day to get the items you missed.

For the past several years major retailers have embraced our desire to shop earlier by offering the same doorbuster deals that draw crowds to the store, online. De Grandpre estimates that "we'll see 80-90% of the tech doorbusters available online this year, with a lower percentage of apparel and other soft goods." For shoppers this means you can enjoy all of the savings without having to worry about Black Friday safety and security.

Advertisement