What is Cyber Monday? Here's what you should know about the ...

According to a Reuters report, this year's Cyber Monday, which falls on November 27, is set to be the biggest online shopping day of the year in the US, with many e-commerce sites offering discounts averaging 30% on electronics and 19% on furniture. According to Adobe Analytics, shoppers could spend a record $12 billion this Cyber Monday, up 5.4% from last year.

According to Brittanica, the term Cyber Monday was first coined by the National Retail Federation (NRF) in 2005 as a way to boost online shopping in the US in the period after Black Friday, since people's internet connections at work were usually faster than at home.

Although Cyber Monday started in the US, the event has now been adopted internationally by online shopping companies to boost their sales and is now a feature of countries such as Canada, the UK and Japan.

Black Friday is a colloquial term for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States (US). It has become one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the US and fell on November 24 this year. On this day, retailers offer major discounts to attract customers and stimulate early holiday shopping. This is done with an aim to boost the overall sales.

Explaining the history behind Cyber Monday, NRF Vice President of industry and consumer insights, Katherine Cullen told NBC News, “With the growth of online shopping, online-only players like Amazon were looking for a way to capitalize on Thanksgiving weekend sales…The Monday after Thanksgiving became dedicated to online sales, differentiating it from Black Friday."

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Updated: 27 Nov 2023, 09:23 AM IST