Cyber Monday

My title here at Google is currently “Retail Vertical Specialist.” In short, I work with the large retail companies who advertise with us….
For retailers, the holiday season (that just officially started this past Friday) is the most important time of the year…. For some sub-industries (like toys), over 90% of their sales come from this 2 week period!

Because the holiday season is so important, the media world intensifies it’s coverage and analysis over these months …. They do things like blame low retail sales on high gas prices or the weather… They also feel compelled to come up with cute names for particular time periods. The most famous to date has been “Black Friday,” which is the Friday after Thanksgiving... It’s called Black Friday because this is usually the day that retailers go from “the red”(unprofitable) into “the black” (profitable). To lure shoppers on Black Friday, retailers have been known to offer incredible deals for a small window of time. This year – this tactic caused some pretty interesting commotions, such as people getting trampled on when doors opened or fights among customers for remaining merchandise….

Anyway within online retailing, today(11/28), the Monday after Thanksgiving was usually called “Blue Monday.” Blue – referring to the typical blue hyperlinks on websites ….

This year, however, someone has dubbed today as “Cyber-Monday” …. CYBER-MONDAY????? Doesn’t that sound like a 1989 Movie title, starting Keanu Reeves???

Everyone from Katie Couric to Barbara Walters is talking about “Cyber Monday” today… It's like a flash back to my college professor talking about "the information super highway" ....

I guess I shouldn’t complain …. The fact that the media finally acknowledges that customers are using the web (and Google) to shop for holiday gifts - should make my job easier.

Truth is that several CEOs still believe that the internet channel is too minor to ever focus on…. (Example – TJ Maxx and Marshalls recently shut-down their e-commerce completely) The interesting thing is that today isn’t even the biggest day to shop on the web. That will come in 2 weeks…..

Anyway – I am sure over the next few years – someone will come up with an even more lame name than “Cyber-Monday” … Until then, we seem to be stuck with it.

Merry Cyber Monday everybody….