Freelance Local SEO and WordPress Consultant: Say Hello To Cyber November or Black November: End Of Black Friday & Cyber Monday Era

The Era of Black Friday & Cyber Monday is come to an end in 2016. We're experiencing, A Full-Month of awesome offers leading up to everyone's favorite month of the year: The November. A month of Offer instead of Black Friday & Cyber Monday, which is great news for shoppers.

From Wal-Mart to Amazon, many big retailers are rolling out their sales before Black Friday this year. In the wake of a 12 percent drop in Back Friday sales last year, companies are giving consumers deals up to four days BEFORE the day after Thanksgiving. Now the two seem to be combining, as online retailers offering deals earlier and earlier in a trend some call “Cyber November.” or “Black November.”

This is all changing the game for shoppers, because you don't have to wait for any black Friday or cyber Monday to get this great deals. NBC News Correspondent Jo Ling Kent reports for TODAY.COM.

While consumer spending in stores on Friday is expected to exceed 2015 numbers, online retail is predicted to grow even faster, says Jill Gonzalez, who tracks retail sales for Wallet Hub. “It’s generational. Going out to stores on Black Friday is less of a millennial mindset. It’s easier from a price comparison aspect to shop online. It’s knowing you got the best deal, it’s consumer empowerment,” says Gonzalez.

The deals on Black Friday & Cyber Monday are generally offered by smaller retailers that cannot compete with the big retailers. They generally offers better deals on technology, with nearly 85% more data storage deals than Cyber Monday. The past Black Fridays saw far more deals for small appliances, cutlery, and kitchen gadgets on average than Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is larger for fashion retail. On the past two Cyber Mondays, there were an average of 45% more clothing deals than on Black Friday. There were also 50% more shoe deals on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday.

It’s Time to Change

From This year, November will be the ultimate month for online deal hunters. Not only will you find above-average sales most months, but this month you also get to shop Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday — and price lows you simply don't see throughout the rest of the year.

Nearly 25% of all consumer spending in the U.S. comes in the holiday shopping season, most of that after Black Friday but before Christmas Eve.

Even though consumers will spend more than US$400 billion on retail purchases in November, 2016 (compared to $363 billion in November 2012), Black Friday and Cyber Monday will no longer signal the start of the holiday shopping season; instead, they’ll now be part of an entire shopping season that will kick off in early November, hence the name “Cyber November.” or “Black November.”.

According to Google, 40% of Canadian consumers start their holiday shopping before Halloween and 88% of retailers in the United States start advertising sales in the first week of November.

November is not too Early for Christmas in Online Retail

Online Shopping in the United States is a multi-billion dollar sector of business-to-consumer transactions where goods are sold via the online. There are different online shopping website categories: some E-commerce websites are based on brick-and-mortar stores whereas others are designated online retailing companies.

Google predicts that half of all consumers start holiday shopping research before Thanksgiving. A good 26% of those shoppers actually start before Halloween.

Retailers would benefit from spreading their promotions out over an entire month, making adjustments along the way, instead of betting it all on just one weekend. Logistics would be easier to manage, not to mention that they’d avoid the headaches related to the hordes of shoppers that can grind some stores – online or physical - to a halt during Black Friday weekend.

These days, 51% of Americans prefer to shop online rather than in stores. US Consumer Spending 11545.80 USD Billion in the third quarter of 2016 from 11484.90 USD Billion in the second quarter of 2016. Consumer Spending in the United States averaged 5245.42 USD Billion from 1950 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 11545.80 USD Billion in the third quarter of 2016 and a record low of 1320.40 USD Billion in the first quarter of 1950. Consumer Spending in the United States is reported by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

With 35.7% of Black Friday sales in 2015, Amazon is still the online retail benchmark. In 2016, the market leader officially launched its "Black Friday" sales site on November 1st as a “countdown to Black Friday” angle is used, followed by the online retailer’s “Cyber Monday Deals Week”. Amazon is expected to run increasingly attractive promotions that are available only for a limited time or in limited quantities, or to a specific group (special offers for Prime members, for example), and refresh its eCommerce offering on a daily basis while creating a sense of urgency for the entire period, rather than just two days. By extending the sale period and taking advantage of the wide range of products sold through its platform, Amazon is able to respond quickly to trends and adjust its offer, inventory, and promotions.

Top 10 e-Commerce sites in the USA: In this Top 10 List, I included only e-commerce sites that deal in physical products (I excluded companies like Netflix and Steam that primarily deal in digital files and subscription services). According to Alexa Data, Top 10 e-Commerce sites in the USA are following.

Canadian Housewares Retailer Stokes

In Canada, the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season is the day after Halloween. Canadian housewares retailer Stokes prepares its holiday season well in advance and Cyber November plays a big role in its 2016 strategy: a pre-shopping contest launched in late October will invite users to create a wishlist which they can win. This will enable the retailer to get a better idea of customer interest and intent, which it can then reactivate throughout Cyber November with theme-driven offers that are increasingly attractive. The user will enjoy an evolving experience that will culminate on Cyber Monday.

For retailers, Google is the go-to indicator for consumer interest and behavior. Custora, a software-as-a-service platform that helps retailers understand marketing trends, predicts that 41% of all online shopping starts with Google. Organic and search engine optimization account for 22.4% of ecommerce transactions while paid search (search engine marketing and cost per click) account for 18.6%.

Consumer Spending in Canada increased to 1017654 CAD Million in the second quarter of 2016 from 1012228 CAD Million in the first quarter of 2016. Consumer Spending in Canada averaged 515978.44 CAD Million from 1961 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 1017654 CAD Million in the second quarter of 2016 and a record low of 162251 CAD Million in the first quarter of 1961. Consumer Spending in Canada is reported by the Statistics Canada.

Countries like England and Ireland call the last quarter of the year “the golden quarter. UK online shopping sales jumped in this November as 77% of UK Internet users made a purchase online in 2015, which according to Retail Research, encouraged online sales to grow by 16.2% in 2015. We can expect further growth in 2016, with current predictions standing at 14.9%.

Consumer Spending in the United Kingdom increased to 307503 GBP Million in the third quarter of 2016 from 305664 GBP Million in the second quarter of 2016. Consumer Spending in the United Kingdom averaged 162492.11 GBP Million from 1955 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 307503 GBP Million in the third quarter of 2016 and a record low of 65075 GBP Million in the second quarter of 1956. Consumer Spending in the United Kingdom is reported by the Office for National Statistics.

Top 10 e-Commerce sites in the UK: Commerce websites ranked by visitors in the United Kingdom (UK) in March 2016 by Statista Report.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday, Say Hello To Cyber November or Black November! Sales booming out early November than ever blanking the internet and the shopping mall. Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Louis & other online & traditional retailer offering Black Friday & Cyber Monday discount the whole November.

7 Trends Online Retailers Will Need to Know About In 2017

2016 was an exciting year for the online retail industry (eCommerce). The new year promises to be a winner for retailers and consumers alike. As we look ahead, let’s consider the following 7 top trends.

Online Retailers will give consumers more payment options.
Mobile will play a bigger role.
Live streaming to open new marketing opportunities.
The Monetisation of mobile messaging apps.
Social Media Buy Buttons will Reshape the E-Commerce
Smartphone usage trends require a multi-channel strategy.
Shopping Virtually With Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR & VR).

Overall, November will likely chalk up a good start to the 2016 holiday shopping season, but this year it also marked a change to the cadence of holiday, with the shopping activity taking on a new, more spread-out rhythm.

So, What Does That Mean For Online Retailers?

Well, it means online retailers will have to shift their Black Friday & Cyber Monday strategy for whole November and focus more on eCommerce and try to cut into Amazon’s dominating Black Friday presence (This year, Amazon accounted for 35.7% of online sales on Black Friday; Best Buy was second with 8.23%.4). In order to do so, I suggest they focus on 2017 Online Retail Trend Mentioned Above to help ensure their Success.

Online Retailers would get benefit from spreading their promotions out over an entire November, making adjustments along the way, instead of betting it all on just Black Friday & Cyber Monday. Logistics would be easier to manage, not to mention that they’d avoid the headaches related to the hordes of shoppers that can grind some stores – online or physical - to a halt during Black Friday weekend.

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Welcome & Say Hello To The New Cyber November, or should I say, Black November.