Throng Goes Online To Shop For Cyber Monday
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- After a busy holiday weekend in shopping malls, millions of Americans went online and kept shopping for Cyber Monday.
The Monday after Thanksgiving has been the biggest online shopping day of the year since 2010. The day could take on added importance after a Thanksgiving weekend that saw fewer shoppers and lower spending than last year, according to some estimates.
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Retailers have been pushing deals all month and particularly the past week, hoping to spur customers to spend. That may have taken away some spending from Thanksgiving weekend.
Research firm comScore expects people to spend about $2.5 billion on Cyber Monday.
"They do have items that are blowout items, so that can be up to 80 percent," said Jon Lal, CEO founder of BeFrugal.com. "So big sales."
PayPal said its global mobile payment volume jumped 47 percent on Thanksgiving Day compared with last year.
Walmart said it had more than 500 million page views on Thanksgiving and eBay says it sold 2,000 iPad Air 2 tablets for $399 at a rate of one a second.
To beef up less drastic sales, sites like Retailmenot.com offer coupons for up to an additional 70 percent off while BeFrugal.com couples coupons with additional cash back opportunities. CBS2's Diane Macedo reported.
There's also ShopSavvy.com, which can help you keep track of which stores have the best deals on certain products.
Experts told CBS2's Emily Smith that shoppers could expect to see the deepest discounts through midnight on Monday, on clothes, beauty supplies, and electronics with discounts as deep as 80 percent.
"I live across from Eastern Mountain Sports, but I bought something online. trail running shoes, definitely a deal at 40 percent off, no tax, free shipping," CNET.com Executive Director, David Carnoy said.
If the markdown isn't what you were hoping for Carnoy suggested waiting it out.
"There's always that feeling the deal will come up again. It's a long holiday season," he said.
For late-night shoppers stores like Walmart offer an evening edition rollout, CBS2's Tracee Carrasco reported.
"They said they will be adding online exclusives in the evening today to cater to that working mom who comes home and wants to have a chance to shop on Cyber Monday," Poonam Goyal, Bloomberg Intelligence, said.
Goyal suggested grabbing a computer and re-checking websites that you may have already looked at for late night deals.
"Look at the retailers you want to shop at. See if they added anything last minute, retailers that are falling behind plan will add something or may be looking to add something," Goyal said.
Many of the Cyber Monday deals even started popping up last week, and they are likely to last for the next few weeks.
"You can find online coupons that get you free shipping, some retailers have an order value that gets you free shipping and then finally you might want to sign up for an email list and sometimes just doing that gets you free shipping," said Lal.
Many retailers donate part of their Cyber Monday proceeds, so look for sites like Buy4.com which can help you pair causes and retailers, helping you ensure some of your spending is going to those in need.
Amazon has been offering special deals since Nov. 21, adding new discounts as often as every 10 minutes for eight days straight. Deals include up to 45 percent off some Samsung TVs and 28 percent off Beats by Dre headphones, selling for $275.
Amazon is debuting a new deal every 10 minutes and has enlisted some high tech help to help fill all those orders.
"Little orange robot goes out and picks the right pod of inventory and brings it back," said Amazon Senior Vice President Worldwide Operations and Customer Service David Clark.
Wal-Mart said it has doubled its Cyber Week deals to 500 compared with last year, including up to half off some TVs, tablets and toys with free-shipping offers.
Toys R Us is offering online deals for 11 days that began the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and also has free-shipping offers. Cyberdeals include $15 off Disney "Frozen'' Princess dolls that are regularly $50 and $20 off a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Battroborg Electronic Battle Game that is usually $80.
Many waiting in line at a Starbucks in Sayerville, New Jersey were already checking out Cyber Monday deals on their smartphones.
"Look at items, then I write it down and go home and find the best price," one man told 1010 WINS' Glenn Schuck. "I got two young kids so we're looking for all the Cyber Monday deals."
"I order a lot online now," said another woman.
The name "Cyber Monday'' was coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation's online arm, Shop.org, to encourage people to shop online.
After retailers revved up deals for the day, it became the busiest online shopping day in 2010. The name was also a nod to online shopping being done at work, where faster connections made it easier to browse, less of a factor now.
Cyber Monday comes after a weekend that saw 5.3 percent fewer shoppers and 11 percent less spending, according to estimates by the National Retail Federation.
"Online is nowhere near its maturity, so Cyber Monday should be big, with a lot of strength in the days leading up to it,'' Forester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said. "More consumers are spending more shopping dollars online.''
She expects two spikes in online shopping: one during the long Thanksgiving weekend, including Cyber Monday, and one later in December when shipping deadlines to get items by Christmas start to hit.
Research firm comScore expects online sales to rise 16 percent to $61 billion during the November and December shopping season, up 16 percent from last year.
ComScore tracks U.S. online sales based on observed behavior of a representative U.S. consumer panel of 2 million Web users.
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