Cyber-Monday Slow Down Is Not What It Appears

What takes place on the first Monday after Thanksgiving (and coincidentally, is one of the biggest online shopping days of the year)? After Black Friday, which annually lands on American Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday is one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. Avid deal-hunters look forward to this major event as an opportunity to pick up a good bargain, whether it be a laptop for work, a gaming console for fun, or a cloud PBX system for business. Online retailers have recognized Cyber Monday as an opportunity to slash prices and offer huge discounts on a vast range of items.

So how do we account for some surprising data? In 2021, Cyber Monday online sales decreased for the first time ever, revealing that shoppers are adopting new habits. In fact, although shoppers dropped $10.7 billion on Cyber Monday in 2021, that represented a 1.4% decrease over 2020, which was $10.8 billion. And these numbers reflect an emerging pattern, which shows a decrease in online sales through a typically record-setting time of year.

Accounting for this slowdown requires an analysis of some extraordinary circumstances that were imposed by a 2-year global pandemic. For one thing, massive inventory shortages played into the situation. And in a less obvious way, consumers shopping – almost exclusively from home – changed consumer dynamics in a big way. These buyers stopped holding out for huge deals or big shopping holidays. Last year, Black Friday-type deals started popping up in early October, creating a Cyber Monday slowdown that caught some industry experts off-guard. In fact, 2021 Cyber Monday was predicted to break previous records, projecting that online retailers would capture up to $11.3 billion that day alone. That number proved to be off by more than 5%, reaffirming that many consumers fulfilled their shopping urge earlier in the season. Another contributing factor could be that 2021 discounts were weak – for example, electronics were discounted by approximately 12% compared with 27% in 2020. In addition, out-of-stock messages rose 169% compared with January 2020, and 258% from November 2019 – significant numbers that affected the decline.

But in spite of the fact that big sale days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been gradually losing a market share as shoppers spread their spending out over longer periods, it’s of critical importance to note that US online spending increased between November 1 – November 28, 2021, from the same period in 2020 by 13.6%, to $99.1 billion. What it proves: physical Black Friday and Cyber Monday “craziness” has leveled out due to the online shift. What we can access year-round has lost its gimmicky excitement. But consumers are still spending!

With the surge in online shopping, online retailers are turning to BPO outsourcing companies to bridge the gap between a bricks and mortar operation, and one that simply gets the job done – efficiently, effectively and successfully. Award-winning Anexa can be the partner you need and help you identify the activities you can successfully outsource, leaving you to the business of doing business. With 20 years of experience in the outsourcing field, we manage a pool of highly trained, bilingual (Spanish and English) agents. These talented professionals bring experience and expertise to a wide range of business areas like marketing, sales, promotion, technical support and customer service.

Questions? Reach out to Anexa today.