Hate Lines? You’ll Love Cyber Monday!

This year, Black Friday sales were better than anyone expected not to mention better than last year. According to a press release from comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, spending on Thanksgiving was up 6%, or $16 million…and up 1%, or $3 million, for Black Friday. Based on the information tracked by comScore, Cyber Monday has been within a few percentage points of the final holiday season growth rate during the past few years.

“With so much volatility right now in the variables that influence consumer spending, predicting where this online holiday season will end up has been far more challenging than in previous years,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. “That said, Cyber Monday may well prove to be an important indicator of whether the decline in spending that we’ve seen during the first few weeks of the online holiday season will continue for the balance of the year.”

A Shop.org survey conducted by BIGresearch found that 55.8% of workers with Internet access, or 72.8 million people, will shop for holiday gifts from work. The trend of employees with internet access shopping from the office has continued to increase: in 2005, only 44.7 percent said they shopped online from work.

I’ll be joining the fun. We’ve already picked out the perfect stocking stuffer for me our son: Kung Fu Panda 2-Pack with Secrets of the Furious Five DVD. Man, I love that movie.

The Hot Spots. Last year, I took advantage of deals on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In 2007, BestBuy.com experienced the most growth of any of the Top 10 online retailers in 2007. That list includes:

Amazon.com
Dell.com
Yahoo.com
Walmart.com
JCPenney.com
Ticketmaster.com
Apple.com
VictoriasSecret.com
BestBuy.com
CircuitCity.com

Amazon.com is at the top of the list because of the variety of products it offers. But like last year, shoppers will likely hunt down electronics deals like a new mobile phone — there’s the new BlackBerry Bold — or a digital camera like the 10-megapixel Canon PowerShot SD770IS. And 5 of the top 20 bestselling electronics on Amazon.com are GPS navigators, the most popular being the Garmin nüvi 350.

Buyer Beware. Greater online traffic can also mean greater opportunities for thieves. Taking precautionary steps is obviously a necessity. Avoid using public computers, and try to resist using public WiFi. Shop from the websites you’re used to, and make sure the domain is legit (i.e., CircuitCity.com not CircuitCiti.com). Stick with credit cards rather than using debit cards — don’t give thieves a direct link to your bank account. Don’t use your usual passwords; pick something unique for your Cyber Monday purchases. And, of course, update your firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software.

And don’t forget, Cyber Monday is only the beginning of the holiday shopping season. So, stay on your toes…and happy shopping!

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