Cyber Monday Sales

Cyber Monday is a relatively new phenomenon, as people get more and more used to shopping online they are only to happy to buy all their christmas gifts from the warmth of their pc.

When it was first noticed that people spend a lot of money on the Monday after thanksgiving at places that are well known online, Amazon and eBay for example, the thinking was that it was a mere blip in behavior patterns. That was back in 2005 and in just 4 short years Cyber Monday has become the focus of newscasts and TV specials. It is one day that can make or break online retailers.

I mean everyone shops at the day after thanksgiving sales why would they wait till they were back at work to spend all their money at the Cyber Monday Sales ?

I loved the Day After Thanksgiving Sales , notice I used the past tense, I did it once and I am glad I did but like bungee jumping I am glad I did it once but no way will I do it again. So why is Cyber Monday the best day to go shopping?

• No Need To Leave The House And Get Cold
• Coffee Is Only Arms Lengths Away
• Beer Is Closer
• You Can Have Pizza Delivered While You Wait To Buy
• No Need To Get Up Early
• No Need To Get Dressed To Go Shopping
  
• They Will Wrap The Gifts For You
• They Will Deliver To You - So No Heavy Lifting
• One Upmanship - Saying you did all your shopping from bed is special
• You Are Helping The Environment - one less car on the road
  

So you agree with me that shopping from bed sounds good yes? However the plan has one small issue, you have to work on Cyber Monday and the boss is definitely going to make you get dressed to go to work.

Well yes ok, if you are a wage slave you have to go into work and do the shopping from there, which admittedly isn't quite so cool. You could still do a lot of your shopping from home over the 3 day weekend.

So how do you know which deals are the best?

Funny enough you can find out what deals are on offer at the websites themselves. You already know what you may be interested in buying. If you are a pc geek you are not going to be buying from Walmart are you!

You know your fave stores, if you use New Egg for computer parts then make sure you are on their email list, they want you to spend money with them so you are sure to be notified of every single deal they do over the thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Sure if you sign up to 10 diff mailing lists you will get some rubbish but you can always unsubscribe afterwards.

Don't forget the papers, many of the big box retailers do specials on their sites over the long weekend. They will often include the info in their newspaper adverts.

While I am excited about Cyber Monday I am also aware that it could be an opportunity for dishonest retailers to profit.

So how can you make sure you don't fall prey

• Don't click on links in emails - I know I said to sign up for newsletters, if you see something you like in the New Egg email then go to their site.
• Think - When you go to the store it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and spend more than you meant to. You have time on your side.
• Plan Ahead - You must have an idea of what you want to buy so plan for that
• Make A Decision - If you want a 1TB external hard drive for example it is easy to get caught up looking at every brand and make and price point and miss all the deals. You have to make a choice and press the "buy now" button.
• If the site isn't one you know and it is full of wrongly spelled words, then be suspicious.
• If it really seems to good to be true then maybe it is
  

One of the first things people say to me when I talk about shopping online is "What about shipping costs?".

Most ecommerce sites have a policy where you can get free shipping if you spend more than a certain amount. Your other option is to search on Google for free shipping coupons. All in all I don't worry about shipping costs as the chances are that you will be getting free shipping anyway, I mean the minimum is normally $50 and by the time you have bought a couple of toys or T shirts you aren't far short of that anyway.

Look out for special bonus things, some sites will wrap the gifts for your, which of course saves you another job.

Don't be scared off, remember Shopping In Pyjamas is the aim!