“U.S. consumers have turned into digital shopping ninjas this holiday season as retailers continue to adjust to a huge influx of smartphone shoppers”, she observed.
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As the New York Times reports, while there were more mobile shoppers than in-store customers over the weekend, spending at brick-and-mortar locations still “dwarfed” Web sales. According to preliminary numbers from the research firm ShopperTrak, sales fell to $10.4 billion this year, down from $11.6 billion in 2014.
This year’s Black Friday bonanza was the first time in the United Kingdom that online retail sales surpassed £1 billion in one day. “We’ll see a less dramatic spike on Cyber Monday”. And, in the past, when Wal-Mart released select Cyber Monday deals on Sunday evening, traffic increased significantly, it said. 103 million people shopped online as compared to the 102 million who trudged to the nearest malls and superstores for discounted goods. A year ago on Cyber Monday it was a record-breaking day for Amazon – 43 million items ordered.
“It’s all about trying to make it convenient for people on their smart phones, tablets, and even online shoppers”, said Shelton.
“If I were an employer, I might just expect it to be a low productivity day”, Bodge said.
Seeing a spike in online sales after the Thanksgiving weekend, the National Retail Federation wanted to capitalize, Tech Times explains – and in 2005, came out with the Cyber Monday moniker to serve as a Thanksgiving weekend bookend with Black Friday.
Still, other retailers and shipping companies – such as Target, Walmart, and UPS – will be hiring about the same number of seasonal workers this year as last, suggesting that when it comes to online shopping’s impact on employment, the picture is more nuanced.
With Cyber Monday still in full swing, United Kingdom e-commerce over the Black Friday weekend and coming days is tipped to exceed £3 billion, according to Visa Europe.
On Black Friday Amazon sold 86 items per second and enjoyed its biggest sales day ever in the United Kingdom, with more than 7.4 million items ordered. Keep in mind that if storage is an issue, one might consider going for another deal on a different iPad with more storage somewhere else. This particular retailer does a lot of gift card deals for instance they are giving out $60 GameStop gift cards for $50, Toys R Us $100 gift cards for $80 and they’ve also teased 90 percent discounts on various items through their store so far. Employees rushed to their workplace on Monday in order to shop on super fast leased lines.
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Rob Fenton, UK MD of business data agency fifty-five, said: “Cyber Monday struggles to attract such a devoted level of attention among British shoppers”.
