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Goodbye Black Friday, Hello Cyber Monday?
February 15, 2007
by AJ Fanter
Business Programs Columnist
Thanks to Shop.com and a big media push, there's a new e-commerce "tradition" in town. . . Cyber Monday.
The Red, The Black & The Cyber
If you get up at the crack of dawn on the Friday after Thanksgiving, heading out to shop every sale in town, then you already know that it's one of the biggest days in retail. In fact, they have a special name for it, Black Friday, and it used to be the first day of the year when many retailers finally got out of the "red ink" of losses and into the "black" of profits. But this year, a new phrase was born, Cyber Monday. But Cyber Monday isn't a reality. It's a savvy marketing tactic that anyone with an e-commerce degree can appreciate.
See, according to an article by Mark D. Hof with businessweek.com, the phrase was born at Shop.com as a way to get online shoppers excited about the holiday season. The idea was to give e-tailers a means to compete with traditional brick and mortar stores on a busy shopping weekend. However, a funny thing happened, Cyber Monday became a self-fulfilling prophecy with e-tailers experiencing spikes in both traffic and sales. After all, as anyone who's ever taken an e-commerce course can tell you, it's a lot easier to shop online from the comfort of your home (or office) than to battle for parking and parcels at the mall.
Understanding E-Commerce
Unlike traditional brick and mortar stores which drive holiday sales traffic with TV ads, direct mail and print circulars from Halloween until New Years, online businesses must utilize other means of driving traffic and sales. The key to understanding how to be successful in this environment is getting an e-commerce degree. Taking e-commerce courses will not only help you to understand the technology involved, but how to develop, run, market and manage an online business. And who knows, with an e-commerce degree in hand you just might create the next "great idea" in e-tailing!
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About the Author
AJ. Fanter is a freelance writer. She holds a B.A. in English from Colby College with a concentration in Education.
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