Cyber Monday and Black Friday are Endangered as Apps Deliver Daily Sales
The idea of Black Friday and more recently Cyber Monday used to be novelty, similar to when people read the newspaper to see the best deals at Sears or JCPenny’s.
However, that is all but a near distant memory now.
The idea of Cyber Monday came around early on the Internet when most people who had access to true high speed internet were able to order drastically reduced gifts and check MySpace at work without anyone knowing. The introduction of smartphones and other mobile devices changed everything, though.
Yet with the ever increasing ease to check just about everything from store hours to tweets about the “unknown deals” to even seeing where other friends are using geo-location applications all on the small screen of a mobile device, the idea of one-day in store sales is quickly fading away.
The great holiday masses do not have to stand in lines that wrap around the isle nor do they have to pitch a tent in the parking lot to be the first one in the store. All any shopper has to do is get online, search and point-n-click for the deals they want.
With the ever-constant commerce, that is the holiday commotion; one simple trick to ease unrest can be done with a little tap on a screen.
Retailers are working feverishly to develop apps for their store to allow their customers to shop anywhere anytime, giving coupons and deals that could only be found through the app and on their website.
E-commerce sales have risen exponentially. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, in the third quarter of 2011, e-commerce accounted for just fewer than 5 percent of total commerce with more than $45 billion in sales.
With the ever-growing public discourse towards interfacing our lives and world through a smartphone, it is simple to see that the true Cyber Monday is every day.