E-commerce sites prepare for Cyber Sunday shopping spree

Friday, November 27, 2015 - 09:02 by Graham Miller

Although Black Friday has been dominating the news in the past few weeks, with the subsequent Cyber Monday also earning its fair share of attention, it looks like an emerging trend may create an entirely new day of frenetic shopping activity, according to CNET.

Cyber Sunday is not yet officially regarded as a consumer movement, but the demand for deals that people in the UK and internationally are expressing at the moment, means that some retail giants, including Walmart, are pushing their Cyber Monday deals out earlier than usual.

Beginning to offer deals for a particular retail event ahead of time is increasingly common, as evidenced by the range of Black Friday deals which went live well ahead of the day itself. But retailers have cottoned onto the fact that the anticipation of Cyber Monday has had an impact on consumer habits in past years, with people staying up until after midnight on Sunday, to get their orders in early via safe shopping online.

In fact, retailers are keeping a close eye on how people use their sites for safe shopping online while also tracking Google’s search activity, in order to identify the best times to launch offers and events. And with millions of people across the country likely to be sitting on the sofa watching TV, with a smartphone or tablet in hand on Sunday evening, it is easy to see why Cyber Monday may start earlier than ever.

Of course, it is easy to see that while Cyber Monday and Black Friday both got started as a result of unforced consumer habits being shaped by public holidays and the approach of Christmas, a lot of effort is made by retailers to turn naturally occurring spikes in shopping activity into full blown flash sales. And Cyber Sunday may be the next target to follow the same path.