Analysts Predict A Very Merry Cyber Monday

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

The Cyber Monday outlook for your ecommerce IT clients is optimistic. Best Cyber Week provided its top ten predictions for this year’s Cyber Monday performances. Best Cyber Week is predicting $2.057 billion in desktop sales, an 18.6 percent increase over 2013, and desktop and mobile sales combined is predicted to reach about $2.5 billion. In addition, on Cyber Monday, this year falling on Dec. 1, 2014, people will likely shop more from work than from home, and free shipping will be a key feature during Cyber Week, with Best Cyber Week expects to total more than $9 billion in sales.

A new national survey on Cyber Monday, which has been the largest online spending day of the year for the past four years, shoppers rate Cyber Monday deals as second only to Black Friday deals, and 26 percent will begin the hunt for Cyber Monday discounts early on Sunday. Another 38 percent plan to shop Monday morning, and 32 percent anticipate shopping during the rest of Cyber Week. Shoppers reported that they will be looking for the best deals on apparel (49 percent,) electronics (36 percent), toys and games (34 percent), media (33 percent), home goods (24 percent), and mobile products (14 percent). Consumers also will shop according to the best deals (70 percent), free shipping (68 percent), coupons (42 percent), store discounts (51 percent), and cashback rewards (31 percent).

According to Windsor Circle, in an analysis of 2013 Cyber Monday sales, Adobe reported that Cyber Monday eCommerce sales grew 16 percent year-over-year to $2.29 billion, and 18.3 percent of sales came from mobile devices, an increase of 80 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, ComScore reported that Cyber Monday reached $1.73 billion in desktop online spending, up 18 percent from 2012, and IBM said Cyber Monday saw a 20.6 percent increase in online sales.