Cyber Monday is outperforming expectations

It is being reported that Cyber Monday sales are up 20% compared to last year’s CM sales.  The 20% increase was reached at noon Eastern Standard Time.

Last year, Cyber Monday passed $1 billion in sales which made last year the biggest shopping day ever.  This was reported by comStore.  It looks like today will set yet another record.

This year’s mid-day report came from IBM Benchmark.  They said “We expect most shopping to come from laptops and PCs during the day with mobile shopping activity picking up later.”

The company ChannelAdvisor reported that this past Sunday, Amazon noticed a 59% jump in same-store sales as compared to last year.  On Saturday, they broke a previous record too.

That looks to me like people were getting an early jump and not waiting until the official start of Cyber Monday.

All of this means we might expect a larger increase once the West Coast people finish their morning coffee at work and buckle down to a day of on-line shopping.  Traditionally, Cyber Monday (the first Monday after Black Friday) has been a loser as far as work productivity goes.

I have known a few bosses that have announced that there would be no shopping during work hours, but lunchtime was ok.  They then proceeded to close their doors and shop until lunch.

I know this because I was the one they asked to report on the web usage to retail sites!  Needless to say, their shopping somehow failed to appear on any of the reports.  Only one boss remarked about the absence of his sales records as he was “testing” me.

I remarked that all the shopping had probably knocked some bits out of the computer and gave him a double-wink.  He sounded like Santa with the laugh that came next.

I have just made a few calls to IT friends in an informal, non-scientific pool.  Analyzing the verbal reports from them, I can unequivocally state that Cyber Monday is a big success for the retail sales and a really bad day for workplace productivity.

I think that all employers should make one of the holidays Cyber Monday.  Do you agree?