By Amanda Tuzi & Jessica Tedesco
Get your credit cards ready because Cyber Monday is here.
Expected to be the biggest online sales day of the year for the sixth straight year, Cyber Monday is projected to surpass $3 billion in revenue.
The online shopping holiday attracts more than 19 million Canadians, according to IPG Mediabrands, and is one of the two busiest days of the year for parcel and logistic company giants like Purolator.
The online shopping day made its debut in the United States in 2005, when National Retail Federation’s Shop.org sent out a news release declaring Cyber Monday ‘one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.’
The annual shopping spree was geared toward Americans who didn’t have time to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend, or many who were at work and unable to make it to the stores.
Ten years later, Canada has joined in on the shopping frenzy and many Canadian retailers offer Cyber Monday deals to compete.
Cyber Monday allows consumers to avoid the Black Friday madness and many retailers are now extending sales throughout the holiday weekend and into the following Monday.
The appeal has many consumers holding out on Black Friday hoping to nab better deals online.
However, the sales opportunity isn’t appealing to everyone.
For retailers like Radiant Fine Jewellers, owner Frank Lijoi says Cyber Monday is just another day.
“I think Cyber Monday is better for the big corporate stores because small businesses represent other brands,” said Lijoi. “For example, me being a jewelry store I represent Swarovski, I represent Gucci and they have their own websites that are good for Cyber Monday so it wouldn’t be useful for me.”
“I think it’s better for the corporate giants of the world and for small businesses it’s hard to compete on Cyber Monday,” he said.
“I think online shopping is going to get bigger and bigger as years go by,” said Lijoi.
Many could end up overspending as the online shopping trend continues to grow, says debt expert and executive director of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services Jeffrey Schwartz.
“It’s a big problem because, really, online shopping is all about convenience,” Schwartz told CBC News.
Cyber Monday offers the best of both worlds. The shopping ‘holiday’ not only offers major discounts but the ability to make your purchases in the comfort of your own home – or for some, the comfort of their cubicle at work.
Shopping on the job has been a phenomenon many companies are now being forced to deal with.
A survey done by Chicago-based CareerBuilder found that 50 percent of workers said they would shop on Cyber Monday during work hours.
But surveys say more than 10 per cent of employees have been fired for online shopping, so it’s recommended that you wait until you’re clocked out to take part in today’s deals.
IPG Mediabrands surveyed 1,000 Canadians and here are the facts about Cyber Monday: