Cyber Monday follows a successful Black Friday
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
JEREMY HOBSON: Today is the day we go back to work after a long weekend, turn on the computer — and shop. Online. Cyber Monday, as they say in the retail industry.
Marketplace’s Gregory Warner is on the retail beat this morning and he joins us live. Good morning.
GREGORY WARNER: Good morning.
HOBSON: So, you’re at the office there in Philadelphia, you’ve turned on your computer. Have you bought anything online yet today?
WARNER: Uh — No, Jeremy I haven’t gotten the chance, sorry.
HOBSON: Alright, neither have I. So let me ask you, Greg: Why is today so special for retail — Cyber Monday as we say? Shouldn’t every day between now and Christmas be a “Cyber Day”?
WARNER: The theory is that shoppers went out on Black Friday seek out those end of sale deals on the web. That gave this day last year a bump in online sales. But you’re right, there’s a lot of marketing hype here. You call something a name like “Cyber Monday”, and people get curious. Walmart’s calling it “Cyber Week.” Anything to extend the traffic from the weekend.
HOBSON: So speaking of the traffic on the weekend, I did go out to the stores the old fashioned way on Friday. There were some pretty good discounts going on. Do we know yet how retailers did generally on Black Friday?
WARNER: Surveys say 212 million people visited a store or website this weekend. That’s up from 195 million. And each person spent 6 percent more. Those are just some rough estimates from the National Retail Federation. But I’ll tell you what’s really doing well is the cultural phenomenon of Black Friday, as this kind of holy grail of good deals. Consider this Jeremy — 24 percent of Black Friday shoppers were at the stores by 4 in the morning.
HOBSON: OK well I can happily say that I was one of the 76 percent that was not there at 4 in the morning. Marketplace’s Gregory Warner, thanks so much.
WARNER: Thanks.
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