I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath all holiday season to find out which of the made-up online shopping holidays would be the winner—Cyber Monday for the first time ever? Green Monday again? Brown Monday? Purplish-Blue-Like-a-Bruise Monday? Sadly, none of the above. Nope, it was some no name: Tuesday, December 15 . Coming from behind, that all-but-forgotten day of the week topped the online revenue charts for the first time with $913M in sales. That’s right, nearly one billion dollars in revenue online in one day—and yes, that would be the record for the most online spending in a single day, ever. 2009 Holiday Season To Date vs. Corresponding Days* in 2008 Non-Travel (Retail) Spending Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore, Inc
Posts tagged ‘holiday’
Last month, there was a minor furor over Google’s Chrome OS. The rumors were flying that it was about to “launch” and you could run it on a netbook before Thanksgiving. Of course, that wasn’t quite the case—as Google had promised all along, it was merely opening its code to developers to prepare for the eventual full launch. (Of course, if you really wanted it, you could always run the code through a compiler—and cross your fingers.) Well, that full launch is still coming. Google’s original timeline set devices coming out in the second half of 2010. According to TechCrunch, a Google-branded device might be ready for the holiday season of 2010—right on schedule. Hm? Oh, yeah, I said Google-branded. I know, first we hear about the Google Nexus phone (a “real” Gphone?), created directly for Google, and now a netbook. I thought they didn’t want to get into the hardware…. Says TechCrunch: Our understanding is that Google intends to have the devices built, branded with Google, and then sell them directly to consumers. The only firm tech spec we’ve heard is that they’ll be mobile enabled, and likely tied to one or more carriers with a subsidy. Previously, as with Android, Google had said that they intended to work with established hardware brands (from Acer to Toshiba) for the devices. TC points out that outsourcing their own device might make integration with a new OS easier. What do you think? Will we see a Google-branded, Google OS Netbook in the next year? Or will Google really stick to its original plans of using established computer makers?
See the original post:
It’s Coming: the Google Chrome OS Netbook
Alright, folks… crunch time. The end of 2009 is near, and you know that for virtually everyone who actually celebrates one holiday or another in December, it can get crazed. We’ve heard of surgeons using Twitter while in the operating room, airplane passengers Twittering during a flight emergency, people raising money to fight cancer… all amazing things in their own rights without a doubt. But what about the hectic holidays? First, answer in the comments how you think Twitter can help with holiday preparations, and then vote in the poll as to if you’ve already experienced the “Miracle of Twitter” this holiday season. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . How Can Twitter Help With Holiday Preparations?
The results are in: Cyber Monday (and Black Friday) = success ! The numbers are actually up from last year, despite the state the economy is still in. And according to Hitwise, social sites helped to drive sales. (Yeah, FOR REAL.) Their data shows that not only was US traffic up to social sites over the holiday weekend, but downstream traffic to online retailers was also up—especially to Amazon (Cyber Monday winner), Wal-Mart (Black Friday winner), Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us. Wal-Mart also saw the highest increase in downstream traffic from Twitter (among the Retail 500 that Hitwise tracks). However, let me just pull out my favorite wet blanket—sort of. Let’s see, how can I put this? #1—Cyber Monday is a made-up holiday. Nobody outside of Internet marketing/retailing has ever heard of it and it has nothing to do with their shopping patterns. However, there’s good news here, too. We are a nation (world?) of procrastinators—and another day is actually the biggest (revenue-wise) online shopping day of the year—and it’s yet to come . The thinking behind Cyber Monday, created in 2005, was that workers returning from their Thanksgiving holiday would use the Internet to do a lot of their holiday shopping. (At work? Don’t they have the Internet at home, where they have all those glossy ads from stores to compare prices? Were they too lazy/agoraphobic to go out on Black Friday? (Hey, no worries, me too.) Clearly, the logic behind this “holiday” was always flawed.) Two years ago, it was “ Green Monday ” (although now there seems to be some confusion as to whether that label applies to the first or second Monday in December)—with $881M in online sales (versus $733 on Cyber Monday, tied for tenth among the big online sales days in 2007). Last year, it was the day after Green Monday, with $887M (versus $846M on Cyber Monday)—but with this year’s Cyber Monday total the same as last year’s highest sales day (and last year’s highest sales day only a 1% increase over the year before), could we hope for anything higher?
View post:
Social Sites Help eCommerce (and Your Annual Reality Check)
Let’s face it this holiday season is a pivotal one for all of us from a macro point of view. While many retailers will be focused on their individual bottom lines it will be important to look at how this whole ‘first weekend’ of the holiday shopping season plays out from start to finish with the latest entry, Cyber Monday, happening as you read this. First the good news. Online sales for Black Friday were up 11% over last year according to comScore and the rest of November was an improvement over the prior year. Let’s remember, though, that last year’s holiday season was on the heels of “Bailout 1” and waiting for a new president to be inaugurated. In other words, last year sucked so any improvement over those numbers needs to be tempered. Overall, meaning the performance of the Black Friday weekend in total, was less heartening in that it appears that people are intent on spending less and there was virtually no increase in spending overall from last year. Yahoo News reports Consumers spent significantly less per person at the start of the holiday season this weekend, dimming hopes for a retail comeback that would help propel the economy early in 2010. Consumers said they will have spent nearly 8 percent less on average, or about $343 per person, over the weekend that includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday and runs through Sunday, according to the NRF (National Federation of Retailers). Traffic to stores and websites rose to 195 million people from 172 million in 2008, but shoppers were focused on buying low-priced items, like $10 toys and $9 books, the NRF said. Total spending for the holiday weekend rose to an estimated $41.2 billion, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier, NRF said. Since I am not a prognosticator I am not going to offer some thoughts on where this will all go. What I will say is that this will not be the time for irrational exuberance over numbers that look nice in a silo. This season is about online and offline together and if there is little or no increase (or even a decrease) in spending then we are looking at some interesting times ahead.
Free wifi seems to be the new black as of late when it comes to Internet companies promoting their offerings. As you may or may not know, I am a disgruntled Blackberry Storm user who went with an iTouch so I could at least be in the same room as the cool kids but if there’s no Wifi there’s no go. Well, depending on where I may roam and when I am out and about I may have more connectivity then I am accustomed to thanks to a rush of folks thinking it would be cool if there were “Wifi for all” during the holiday season. Hmmmm, I wonder if they have ulterior motives other than just being nice…… Here’s a list of who’s doing what and where. Google – CNN Money reports that Google is providing free Wifi to travelers in 47 airports across the country . Pretty neat. All of the international airports in Florida will reap the benefits through the rest of the year. Not to be outdone Google is making sure that people in some less trafficked airports like Billings, MT can try out any new Google goodies while waiting for their flights. This offer is in addition the already announced free Wifi on Virgin America flights as well. Yahoo – Not to be outdone, Yahoo has announced it will provide free Wifi to Times Square in New York City for an entire year . Nice! A rep says it’s “the latest literal expression of Yahoo’s promise to be at the center of people’s online lives”—which is also a theme of the company’s $100 million ad campaign Don’t you just get a boat load of warm fuzzies when you hear that from Yahoo! (Hi, Carol!) eBay – For those flying Delta for the Thanksgiving holiday eBay will be providing free Wifi through Gogo. Nice touch. Don’t forget to do your holiday shopping while at 30,000 feet. Welcome to the new version of the “Mile High Club” which is G-rated and fun for the whole family. Even brands like Lexus are utilizing the free Wifi approach to get their word out. While more product related around the intro of a new vehicle, the car maker offered free Wifi for a week on American Airlines flights. Google is making sure that it does more than anyone else apparently as they tie a charitable effort to their promotion as well. The company is also running a charity campaign to raise money for three nonprofit groups: Engineers without Borders, One Economy Corporation and Climate Savers Computing Initiative. When Google WiFi users first log on, the landing page will offer them the option of donating to the organizations. Google will match donations of up to $250,000 per airport. Now, I don’t know the economics of this kind of effort but this kind of sponsored offering makes the most sense to me as a great way to spend marketing dollars and add utility all at once. If I could ditch my Storm and use the iTouch just about anywhere then maybe my hybrid Apple and Droid dream could come true. I would be endeared to anyone who helped make that happen.
More here:
‘Tis the Season for Free Wifi
Ok, that headline was completely unfair because this post is about WiFi access on Virgin America flights that is being provided by Google. Got your attention though didn’t it? For a moment maybe you thought that Google had really taken this ‘providing service to everyone and type of person on the planet’ to a disturbing level. Maybe you just think I’m an idiot for using the headline. Honestly, it doesn’t matter much in the end does it? Now for the news. On Google’s blog they have announced how they are providing this service on every Virgin America flight for the holiday season. We know the holiday season seems to come earlier every year (sorry, Halloween), but before you make your final travel plans, we’re excited to let you know that we’re partnering with Virgin America to provide free WiFi on every Virgin America flight between November 10, 2009 and January 15, 2010 I have to admit that it’s pretty cool to think that no matter where you fly you can have Internet access for the flight. While more and more airlines are at least experimenting with this service leave it to Google to trump them (no offense Mr. Branson, I am not referring to The Donald there). You gotta love the Google bloggers as well since they are the biggest marketing arm that the company has. Check out the description of the nirvana at 30,000 feet you will have while experiencing this offer. Whether it’s using Gmail to confirm an airport pick up time with your brother, doing some last minute gift shopping for your niece on Google Product Search or searching Google.com for a good sweet potato pie recipe before touchdown — we hope this makes it a bit easier to stay connected with family and friends while you’re up in the air. Nice work marketing blogging team! If anyone gets a chance to use the service be sure to stop in and let us know how the flight was and if it’s cool to be part of the Google Mile High Club. Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
Continue reading here:
Google Gives Virgin Free WiFi