The rising profile of ‘Cyber Monday’

I steered clear of the topic of Black Friday this year. Perhaps it’s not as hyped as it was. Instead, this year the media has been making a lot ‘Mega Monday’ or ‘Cyber Monday’, emphasising the growing role of internet retailing in the UK.

There’s a good article (and a couple of video clips too) in the Telegraph. It talks about themes you will probably be familiar with: that with the traditional high street suffering recent casualties such as Comet, online retailers are anticipating taking a greater share of the important Christmas market. High street retailers have struggled to compete because of higher cost bills, but have been expanding their own online operations to try and bridge the gap. Recently critics have also argued that the online retailers are not paying their share of corporation tax.

The hype surrounding Mega Monday is explained because it is normally the first opportunity for shoppers to open their wallets and get out their payment cards after the arrival of the last pay packet before Christmas. Yet with retail spending still very flat, there seems to be a good deal of uncertainty if the online retailers really can pick up sales and market share.

Online shopping is genuinely different in that so much of it happens outside normal trading hours. Many online consumers log on after high street shops have closed. Visa says the favourite shopping hour is between 8pm and 9pm. Visa Europe predicts Monday will be the "biggest online shopping day in history" with armchair shoppers making 6.8m purchases, an increase of 21pc on last year and use their cards to spend £320m.

More online businesses are extending their product range to increase competition with high treet chains. Amazon is launching a new fashion division in an effort to repeat its success in books and technology. The managing director of Amazon.co.uk, also claimed that Cyber Monday would be the "busiest day in the history" of the company and has recruited more than 10,000 extra staff for Christmas work in its eight UK centres.

But ‘traditional’ retailers are putting up a good fight. Marks & Spencer has hired 800 extra staff at distribution centres for its "busiest day of the year" after seeing online orders triple on Mega Monday last year. Department store group John Lewis saw online sales reach a new record of £37.9m last week with total business up 9.3pc to £124.4m, the third best ever weekly performance.

But beware the hype. According to The Guardian, not everyone is convinced by Cyber Monday, seeing it as another wheeze dreamed up by marketers. There are quotes from Mothercare and the CEO of Dixons Retail, who says "I don't think Cyber Monday has the same power it may have had. It dates back to a time when you had to wait two weeks for a delivery, but now we do 24 hour delivery and will offer reserve and collect up until Christmas Eve”.

It seems both traditional and online retailers have come such a long way in such a short space of time.