You’ve heard them all: Cyber Monday, eDay, dMonday, and xMonday were even included in the mix. But is there any truth to the hype, or were these days only coined by savvy online retailers and internet marketing companies? By our calculations, there is something indeed to the fury.
In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past year, or just shopping at those, oh what do you call them, physical stores, Cyber Monday is a clever name for the Monday after Thanksgiving when Online retail sales are reportedly the highest. The term was coined by Shop.org in 2005, claiming that the rise in online sales was due to people buying from their high-speed Internet connections at the office. Although this statistic turned out to be false (Cyber Monday ’05 was only the ninth day with the highest online spending), it was the day with the highest retail traffic, much to the dismay of bosses around the world.
After learning that Shop.org’s calculations were wrong, people tried to predict the “real” Cyber Monday of 2006. Once again, the guesses were wrong, but they managed to come up with equally cheesy names. Some guessed that December 4, unsurprisingly called “eDay,” would turn out to be the most lucrative for online retailers because consumers would “window-shop” on Cyber Monday, see the deals and compare prices, and then they would wait a week to shop. . After the eDay came and went, and retailers didn’t see the spikes in sales they had anticipated, another day was certainly considered “Monday delivery deadline” or “dMonday.” Retailers thought Monday would have the highest sales because it was two weeks before Christmas, long enough to get standard shipping rates on orders. For those procrastinators with less monetary scruples, a prediction of high sales was made for December 18 and was dubbed “xMonday.”
It seems that if one cannot be bothered to visit an actual physical store, that person cannot be bothered to complete their Christmas shopping early either. Overall, SearchAdNetwork, a Denver-based search engine marketing agency, found that Monday, December 18 or xMonday has the most spikes in average daily revenue. People realized that they could still receive their orders in time for the big day; they would just have to pay a little more for shipping. The 18th also falls around the time most people receive their Christmas bonuses, giving them a little extra money to spend. dMonday was the second highest average earnings day. These carefree shoppers were a bit more frugal than their xMonday shopping counterparts.
The SearchAdNetwork media agent revealed an interesting trend this holiday shopping season: Every Monday and Tuesday were high-income days. In recent years, it was hypothesized that shoppers were waiting until the weekend was over to take advantage of high-speed Internet connections in the office. This explanation becomes nil as more and more people subscribe to high-speed Internet services in their homes. The real reason for this spike in online sales at the beginning of the week may be that people use computers at work so family members can’t see what they’re ordering or check history. After discussing wish lists over the weekend, parents can try to outwit the crafty kids by doing all the shopping online from the office.
The highest daily ROAS percentage was a statistic the Denver search engine marketing company found consistent across all retail customers. Not surprisingly, it fell on a familiar day of the week: Monday, December 11, or Monday. What is quite surprising is that dMonday was not the day with the highest ad spend, nor was it in the top ten for most customers. Given that dMonday wasn’t the highest-earning day either, this finding is certainly curious. It seems that buyers were more willing to go the extra mile on this day to search for the items they wanted, rather than simply relying on the first ad displayed by search engines. Or the high ROAS can be explained as the first wave of the “oh-no-must-buy-gifts-now” thought process.
The SearchAdNetwork reports show another interesting trend: December 26 was an unusually high revenue day for every retail customer. SAN has several theories for this post-Christmas sales spike; some based on real data, some on our customers’ product knowledge, and some based on gift giving and receiving experiences. SAN believes that many people were shopping for accessories and complementary products online for the items they received as gifts. There is strong evidence for this conjecture based on the average order size on December 26; Although there were a greater number of orders, the average amount spent on each order was small. This means that people weren’t buying expensive items; instead, they were ordering all the fun and necessary pieces for bigger giveaways. Another reason for this increase in income could be that people didn’t get what they wanted for Christmas and decided they should take matters into their own hands. Or they were simply using the money they had received as a gift to purchase items online.
A customer who specializes in fitness equipment saw an exceptionally large sales increase on Christmas Day. This increase could be due to people feeling self-conscious and out of shape after eating a giant Christmas feast. Again, these sales could be due to people spending money that they had received as a gift. Giving someone a treadmill for Christmas may seem like an insult, even if they asked for it; therefore, loved ones may have given money instead so that the recipient could make his or her own fitness purchase.
According to comScore, the 2006 holiday season saw a 26 percent increase in e-commerce spending over 2005; However, Cyber Monday turned out less than electric for online retail sales. In 2006, SearchAdNetwork found that the “real” Cyber Monday, the single day of the winter holiday season with the highest earnings online, was December 18. Second, and also the day with the highest ROAS percentage, was Monday, December 11. This data suggests that due to the convenience of online shopping, customers wait until the absolute last minute to make their purchases, even if it means spending more on shipping costs. SearchAdNetwork reports also show an increase in average revenue every Monday and Tuesday.
This early-week trend reveals shopper buying patterns alongside children’s spying trends, suggesting parents wait until they return to work to quickly and secretly order gifts from internet retailers. The internet marketing firm also noticed a spike in online revenue on December 26 when people were shopping for accessories and complimentary items for gifts received the day before. Overall, SearchAdNetwork saw a significant increase in sales and ROAS for all clients. To be sure, there were many reasons for online retailers and internet marketing companies to celebrate the 2006 holiday season.