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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Canon Powershot SD1000 Digital Camera

According to comScore, online spending was up considerably this year…19% over 2006 sales. While I didn’t partake in any online shopping or fall victim to the long lines around Best Buy and Circuit City, I was definitely front & center for the action on “Black Friday” night.

I’ve been in the market for a number of things this year. But because I curbed my spending after opening RETOX, my hands were tied…credit cards locked away. After reading an article my friend, Danielle, wrote about how Canon is the unofficial bloggers choice for cameras, I couldn’t help but conform to the masses. Circuit City was running a Black Friday special on the Canon PowerShot SD1000. I read a few reviews, a majority of which were extremely positive, and giggled at those written by the overly critical camera geeks. At $149.99, they had me at “Hello”.

Since I’ve relied heavily on my mobile phone camera for snapshots, I’ve missed the convenience and quality of a digi. Since I purchased the SD1000, I’ve used it frequently. The picture quality is great — relatively speaking, of course (you get what you pay for). Camera geeks can still appreciate this camera despite its lack of manual controls. And although it weighs 4.4 ounces, you definitely notice the weighty high build quality. Best of all, it’s small. It’s portability makes it perfect for capturing those “Kodak moments” like this one, which was taken with my BlackBerry camera.

Here’s a shot from my SD1000 of RETOX. I used this photo in a recent ad.

Photo taken w/no flash — RETOX BAR SAN ANTONIO

I’ve only experimented with the video feature once, and after uploading it to my laptop, I was satisfied…impressed actually. I’m convinced that this is one of the best — if not THE best — bang for the buck digis. Now all I need is a Canon PIXMA MX700 or any photo printer for that matter.

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