The clock strikes midnight, and the doors burst open. A crowd of people rush in, many of whom camped outside to hold their place in line, some of whom have looked forward to this day all year. Pushing through the throng, shoppers spread out and hunt for the lowest prices. The fervor is highly contagious, and there’s a collective feeling that a brawl or stampede could break out at any moment.
Yet, for many, there’s an easier way. Enter Cyber Monday: a day of deep discounts and online deals, where shoppers can snag the best prices from the comfort of their own homes. No lines, no crowds—just one-click access to serious savings.
Since its inception in 2005, Cyber Monday has exploded in popularity, with 2024 breaking records. In just two hours, consumers spent a whopping 15.8 million every sixty seconds! With e-commerce continuing to dominate, Cyber Monday’s influence shows no signs of slowing down.
But how did this online shopping phenomenon begin? Let’s dive into the history of Cyber Monday and its lasting impact on retail.
Even after a full weekend of in-store shopping, many people still had holiday gifts left to buy. But instead of heading back to the mall, shoppers discovered a better alternative: browsing online—often right from their desks at work. With easy access to high-speed internet and a quieter environment, online shopping on Monday felt easier, more efficient, and far less chaotic.
Retailers quickly caught on. They began offering limited-time deals the Monday after Thanksgiving, turning what was once a casual trend into a full-blown shopping event. Still, not everyone was convinced at first. In 2005, the The New York Times wrote:
“Hence the catchy Cyber Monday, so called because millions of productive Americans, fresh off a weekend at the mall, are expected to return to work and their high-speed internet connections on Nov. 28 and spend the day buying what they liked in all those stores.”
Turns out, that’s exactly what consumers did. They returned from their Thanksgiving weekend shopping and picked up exactly where they left off—this time online.
The name “Cyber Monday” was coined in a 2005 press release from Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation (NRF). The term itself was proposed by Ellen Davis, a PR executive at the NRF at the time. “It’s a random bit of cocktail party conversation I like to bring up sometimes,” Davis told Fast Company. “It’s surreal to think that I’m associated with a term that has taken off like this.”
Before settling on Cyber Monday, the team considered the name Black Monday to match the already-established Black Friday—but that name was already tied to the 1987 stock market crash.
Online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving had been steadily increasing in the early 2000s. Retailers, always eager to promote the holiday season, responded by offering special promotions and discounts on that day. Experts lacked a definitive reason for the spike in sales but suspected it was a combination of better internet access at work, leftover shopping lists from the weekend, and the looming pressure of holiday gift-giving.
What started as a catchy marketing term quickly became an industry-changing phenomenon—and a new kind of holiday tradition.
By 2008, the housing bubble had burst, the Great Recession was in full swing, and millions of Americans were left without their careers, homes, or savings. Cyber Monday became less a convenience and more of a way to cover expenses during the holiday season.
Cyber Monday deals drove consumers online (many during work hours), and sales continued to tick upwards. Amazon was the most visited retail website visited on Cyber Monday, with traffic to the website up 21% from the previous year. But a rising tide lifts all boats, and Amazon, Walmart, and other retailers began extending Cyber Monday days throughout the week. Cyber Monday had become “Cyber Week.”
Cyber Monday sales continued their rapid ascent and reached $1 billion for the first time in 2010, confirming it as the largest online shopping day in the U.S.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now joined by Small Business Saturday, a celebration of local brick-and-mortar stores, and Giving Tuesday, a day to donate to charitable causes. Amazon Prime Day is yet another e-commerce holiday to spawn in recent years. Total online retail sales during Prime Day surpassed $11 billion, beating out Cyber Monday. The only thing keeping Prime Day from taking the top spot as the world’s largest online shopping day is its 48-hour time frame.
Cyber Monday has forever altered how people wield their purchasing power, especially online. No matter when you read this, Cyber Monday is sure to be one of the largest, if not the largest, online shopping events of the year. It’s one of the few days of the year when frugal shoppers open their wallets and click “Buy Now.”
The University of Texas Permian Basin offers an online Undergraduate Certificate in Digital Marketing. This 12-credit certificate program can be completed in tandem with any of UT Permian Basin’s bachelor’s degree programs, such as our online Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing.
Courses like Digital Branding, E-Marketing, and E-Commerce empower students in our certificate program with the tools they need to establish a company’s digital presence and connect with consumers on multiple communication platforms. Cyber Monday may only come once a year, but the lessons taught in our virtual classrooms will prove invaluable throughout a graduate’s career.
Digital commerce is an ever-changing landscape, and only professionals with specialized knowledge can hope to keep up. Apply now to our online undergraduate certificate program and evolve alongside online retailers.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/03/business/cyber-monday-record-sales/index.html
https://money.cnn.com/2010/12/01/news/economy/billion_cyber_monday/index.htm
https://www.inc.com/anna-meyer/holiday-cyber-monday-sales-forecast-golden-hours-retail.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/01/the-surprisingly-political-origins-of-cyber-monday/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales
https://www.businessinsider.com/2008/12/cyber-monday-traffic-amazon-killed-amzn
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