Is Cyber Monday the New Black Friday? While Black Friday fell short of its predicted mark, retailers are still optimistic about Cyber Monday’s possibilities. Despite hopes that Black Friday would signal a massive reversal in the economy, on average consumers spent only slightly more than 1% more than the previous year. The total spending estimated at $41.2 billion dollars, up a mere shade over last year’s $41 billion, tales of stores emptying out on in the afternoon where common around the country.

Despite the fact that the amount of people lining up early in the morning rose sharply from 23% … Continue Reading

Have you heard? It seems as though stores participating in the Black Friday phenomenon have some serious breaches in their security. In-store deals and flyers are being mysteriously leaked all over the internet.

I Think that the right thing to do, as morally upstanding citizens, would be for all of us to respect their privacy. For decency’s sake do not look at these leaked flyers! Right?

Yeah right.

Lately there’s less and less reason to avert our eyes when something sensational is “leaked” onto the internet. The truly astounding “right-place/right-time-with-my-camera” moments fall so seamlessly alongside … Continue Reading

Black Friday 2009 promises to the be the biggest and best advertised Black Friday in history. Cash starved retailers have been keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that November 27th 2009 will signal the end of a dismal financial year, but will this year’s Black Friday be a boom or bust? And what will it predict about the upcoming holiday shopping season?

Fortunately for retailers, 16% of shoppers plan on beginning their holiday shopping on Black Friday–a 6% increase over 2008’s numbers according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs 2009 Holiday Spending survey.

In response to the increased … Continue Reading

Do you remember Jdimytai Damour? Likely not, but it would be worthwhile to remember his name the next time you walk through the front entrance of a Wal Mart because Jdimytai Damour, a 34 year old employee died there–trampled to death on November 28th 2008 by shoppers eager to grab Black Friday deals.

Outside the store in Valley Stream, NY a crowd began amassing at 9:00 pm the previous night. The police were called at 3:30 am to deal with the large and unruly crowd. At 4:55 am the crowd of 2000 shoppers pushed … Continue Reading

Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away and with that comes the unofficial start of the holiday season. Black Friday vs.Cyber Monday, is there a difference anyways? Do teens like one over the other? Do women and men vary in their shopping behavior on Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

New data on online shopping, the economy, holiday shopping, Black Friday deals, Cyber Monday, and much more was collected for Q4 2009 and the results are intriguing.

Join us this Thursday Nov 5th for a webinar to review the results from the eBillme Online Spending Index.

Sign up … Continue Reading