When did Cyber Monday originate? What is Cyber Monday?

Black Friday has become a part of American retail culture over the course of decades as shoppers gear up for the holiday season by taking advantage of the post-Thanksgiving deals. But in recent years, with the rapid growth of online shopping, the annual retail bonanza has spawned an online-only equivalent: Cyber Monday.

While Black Friday remains the day when excited shoppers flock to stores, Cyber Monday takes place the following week and is for some stores the last chance to grab online bargains before Christmas.

How did Cyber Monday start?

The term ‘Cyber Monday’ is thought to have been coined by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Federation in a Shop.org press release. On 28 November 2005 she wrote a piece entitled: ‘Cyber Monday’ Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year’, which christened the day on which smaller retail website issued their own sales in the aftermath of Black Friday.

The Shop.org post claimed that, during 2005, “77% of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on ‘Cyber Monday’.”

Clearly the piece by Davis simply identified and gave a name to a practice that had been observable previously, but the invention of the term ‘Cyber Monday’ has allowed businesses to build hype around their annual online sales.

Records smashed on previous Cyber Mondays

Cyber Monday on 30 November 2020 broke the record for the largest single day of online shopping in the United States, with $10.7 billion spent in a single day.While Black Friday remains the day when excited shoppers flock to stores, Cyber Monday takes place the following week and as sales continue in the run up to Christmas.

Last year more than 197 million people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend.