Most people have heard of Black Friday, but Cyber Monday is a day that many may not have known existed.
Cyber Monday, which marks the Monday following American Thanksgiving, is a marketing term created by companies to persuade people to buy online — a trend that has spread to Canada in recent years.
The attractiveness of online shopping is heightened this time of year. There’s more selection, better prices, and it offers consumers the chance to beat the lines as shopping malls begin to crowd.
As a result, companies are now using social media as a method to attract consumers.
“If you have an exciting deal, people love to share that information,” said Jim Tobin, president of Ignite Social Media.
Out of the social media outlets available, Facebook tops the list in terms of users based on global traffic statistics.
Laura Mullen is a third-year communications student who views brands and their promotions through Facebook.
“I can use social media sites like Facebook to ‘like’ a brand,” she said. “Their page then shows up in my news feed and I can follow the trends that the company is promoting.”
There are benefits for players in any industry looking to make use of social media, Tobin said.
“That way, you reward them, grow your sales and grow your channel at the same time,” he said.
Marc-Andre Pigeon, a communications professor at Carleton, attended a conference discussing the use of Quick Response (QR) codes in targeting consumers. These codes can be scanned with a cellphone and are used to drive traffic to given sites.
“There are also dozens of shopping apps out there to help you narrow your selection and drive you to a given retailer,” Pigeon said.
“Google Analytics and other companies have developed tools that allow companies to better identify and target potential consumer groups.”
While online shopping provides new outlets for consumers and new opportunities for merchants, Pigeon said shoppers should be cautious when making purchases online because there have been serious data breaches at certain companies.
Emma Fraser, a third-year history student at Carleton, said she’s hesitant to make purchases online for these reasons.
“I’m mostly worried about credit card theft and the chance of fraud,” Fraser said.
“With that said, I think the legitimacy of items online really depends on what a person is buying, and who they are buying it from.”
Despite these kinds of hesitations, online traffic spiked on Cyber Monday. It generated more than $1.2 billion in online sales in the U.S., which was a 22 per cent increase from last year, according to comScore, an organization that examines digital marketing intelligence.
“It was just the second billion-dollar spending day on record, following on the heels of Cyber Monday 2010,” ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a press release.
“It will be interesting to watch the next couple of weeks to see if any future individual days in 2011 manage to leapfrog this year’s highest day to date.”