Retailers Counting on Cyber Monday, Offering Promotions to Make it Happen

As U.S. retailers are preparing for the Black Friday crowds, online retailers are preparing for heavy weekend traffic to their sites with a wide range of promotions. They are eyeing shoppers that most likely want to spend less, in line with the economic times.

Holiday shoppers will find that retailers are wooing them more than ever, especially online

Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, is expected to be more promotional than ever this year as retailers offer one-day sales and special offers to bring holiday shoppers online.

According to the eHoliday Survey, conducted for Shop.org by Shopzilla, 83.7 percent of retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 72.2 percent last year. The most popular promotions are expected to be specific deals (38.8%), email campaigns (32.7%) and one-day sales (24.5%). Additionally, 22.5 percent of retailers will offer free shipping.

“As shoppers focus on price this holiday season, online retailers will be extremely competitive to offer the very best deals,” said Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org. “Americans who are looking to put a dent in their holiday shopping will be able to find thousands of bargains on Cyber Monday.”

Diamond retailers are backed by a heavy campaign by De Beers, geared to drive Americans in higher income brackets (+$100,000) to buy less items, putting most of their gift expenses in few, longer lasting, gifts, namely diamond jewelry.

The campaign includes print, online and broadcast ads in what is considered one of the largest generic marketing efforts De Beers ever created.

More than half of office workers (55.8%), or 72.8 million people, will shop for holiday gifts from work, a rising trend.

Though retailers will be going all-out for Cyber Monday this year, many are also planning to use their websites to drive traffic to stores for Black Friday, the shopping day that follows Thanksgiving and the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season in the U.S.

According to the study, 28.6 percent of retailers plan to increase online marketing of Black Friday promotions this year. Marketing will include emails about stores’ Black Friday deals (74.3%) and search marketing (54.3%).