In 2005, Cyber Monday made its first appearance as a mainstream marketing term. The term and day were created as a way to capitalize on the big consumer spending spree that takes place each year on Black Friday, which is the Friday directly after Thanksgiving Day. Black Friday has traditionally been the biggest shopping day of year for the best deals around the holiday season. Now, Cyber Monday gives Black Friday a run for its money for the title of the best shopping deals. Of course, the main difference between the two is that Cyber Monday is exclusively for online retailers. Cyber Monday gives consumers the chance to get great deals on the gift items they need the most without even having to leave home or work since shopping is done completely online via retailer websites. Each year since the start of Cyber Monday, sales have steadily increased for retailers, with 2011 sales figures breaking $1,251 million in spending.
For 2011, Cyber Monday fell on November 28th. Many online retailers started their Cyber Monday 2011 deals on the weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some retailers had the same deals and discounts the entire time while others built up to the best deal and revealed it on Cyber Monday.
Amazon.com offered plenty of deals for Cyber Monday holiday shoppers. Their sale actually started on Sunday at midnight and lasted for the duration of an entire week. Items were available at super low prices at regular intervals during each day, until that sale expired or all items were sold. Usually, multiple items were put on sale during the same period. A hot item was the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX5V 10.2 MP, which Amazon offer at the low Cyber Monday price of $199, which is a savings of $150 off the normal price. Another great deal for photographers was the Pentax K-5 Digital SLR, body only, which was discounted by $200 at the price of $999. For gamers, the Microsoft Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Bundle, which included the two games – Fable III and Halo Reach, was a great Cyber Monday deal. It was available at $100 off the retail price, which made it just $199. Other deals from Amazon.com for Cyber Monday 2011 include the Twilight movie series DVDs at just $6.99 each, $150 off the Mercer Cutlery Genesis 6-Piece Knife Set, the unlocked Nokia N8 at a savings of $249, the Panasonic Linear Vortex Shaving System with a discount price that was $171 cheaper than the retail price, and $89 off the Monster Diddybeats Headphones. Two of the best deals on Amazon during Cyber Monday week were the Kindle DX at $120 off the retail price and the MacBook Air at $60 off its retail price.
BestBuy.com also offered their Cyber Monday 2011 sale items starting on Sunday. However, their sale ended at midnight on Monday, which means that consumers only had two days to score the best deals from Best Buy online. Consumers looking for appliances were treated to $1200 off the Samsung 28 cu Ft 4 Door Stainless Refrigerator. For consumers looking for a new cell phone, the AT&T HTC Titan was free with any 2-year activation, which is a savings of $199. Consumers could also get any Blackberry Bold at a $100 discount, which was valid for any carrier. Those in need of a new point and shoot digital camera could get the Sony Cyber-Shot W570 16.1 MP camera for just $99.99, which was $60 off the normal price, or the Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS for only $149. Other deals include the Logitech Tablet Keyboard for the iPad at just $39, $229.99 for the Acer 10″ Iconia Tab and a 15-inch Toshiba laptop with a 320GB hard drive for just $279.99. Other good laptop deals for Cyber Monday 2011 include the HP Pavilion dv6 Quad Edition Core i7 Laptop, which was discounted down to $699 at HP.com, the Sony Vaio 15.5-inch Laptop for just $499 and the Toshiba Portege R830 Ultraportable for $779 at Toshiba.com.
Like Amazon, Walmart.com also kicked of a week of deals for Cyber Monday 2011. The deals started on Sunday and lasted through Friday. The big ticket item they offered was a Toshiba 32″ LCD HDTV at a price under $250. Gamers could also get the Xbox 360 Holiday Gamer Bundle here at a price under $320. Other deals at Walmart.com for Cyber Monday 2011 included the Disney Cars 2 Lightning McQueen Talking Feature Chair, the HotWheels Mega Garage Playset, a Danskin Women’s Velour Hoodie and Pant Set, a Tramontina Dutch Oven, a Oral B Electric Toothbrush that included some Crest 3-D Whitestrips as a bonus, and a Fuji Finepix AX330 Camera Bundle. All orders over $45 also got free shipping during Walmart.com’s Cyber Week sale.
ToysRUs.com also did a week of deals for Cyber Monday 2011. Deals included some of the hottest items for Christmas 2011, such as the Nintendo DS. Consumers who bought the Red Nintendo 3DS with Mario Bundle on Cyber Monday got a free Skylanders: Soyro’s Adverture with purchase. The bundle was $199 and was limited to only 3,000. Anyone who bought a Xbox 360 with Kinect could get a free game, headset or controller. All of the Transformers Action Figures and Role Play were 25 percent off during Cyber Monday week. The Justin Beiber dolls and room decor were also 20 percent off. If a Barbie doll or play-set purchase was on your list, and you spent $100, then you got a savings of $15. And hundreds of their video games were buy one and get one at 60 percent off for Cyber Monday 2011.
Target.com continued the trend and also focused on a full week of discounts and deals for Cyber Monday 2011. They had hundreds of movie titles on sale, with prices starting at just $3.99. Anyone that bought a Sony Tablet S was able to get $100 worth of free accessories, such as a cradle, AC adapter and screen protector. Select electronics were offered at a 30 percent off discount. Their top selling toy scooter was an even more impressive 60 percent off. Pillow sets were buy one and get one free. A large number of their toys were on sale at price that were between 30 percent and 50 percent off the retail prices.
Kmart.com had some great deals for consumers who were looking for electronic discounts on Cyber Monday 2011. For TV shoppers, the Ario 32″ LCD HDTV was available for under $200, which was a savings of $100. Another discounted electronics item was the GPX PD701W Portable DVD 7″ LCD, which was under $50 in price. Nerf toys and Baby Alive dolls were all priced at 25 percent off for parents.
HotTopic.com put most of their online store on sale for Cyber Monday. All orders on Monday got free shipping, with no minimum required. Most of their apparel, including hoodies, boots, outwear and shoes were all 25 percent off the normal price. Tees were on sale at buy one and get one at 50 percent off.
Golfers could take advantage of store wide discounts at Golfsmith.com for Cyber Monday 2011. All orders of at least $99 were eligible for both free shipping and 15 percent off the total. Several drivers and golf GPS units were also on sale, including the Garmin Approach S1 GPS wrist watch.
Newegg.com offered a variety of deals on their website for Cyber Monday. Biggest deals were on DDR3 laptop memory for $24.99 and SD memory cards for the same price.
Home improvement shoppers were also able to take advantage of some Cyber Monday 2011 deals at the HomeDepot.com website. The Maytag French Door refrigerator, in stainless steel trim, was discounted down to $1,198 for the Cyber Monday sale. Shoppers in need of a new vacuum cleaner could get the Dyson multi floor bagless vacuum for only $318 during the sale. And for random home improvement items on sale, for just $5.99 you could get the Zenith 26″ metal over the shower head caddy, which was white in color.
If jewelry was top on the Cyber Monday shopping list for you, then BlueNile.com was offering a great deal for the day. They partnered with Living Social to offer $200 merchandise certificates at the price of just $100.
Barnes and Noble’s big deal for Cyber Monday 2011 was on the Nook. If you purchased any model of the Nook from their bn.com website, you got a $25 gift card. However, you had to use a MasterCard to qualify for the gift card promo. If you prefer a different e-reader, Buy.com offered the Kobo Touch eReader for just $69, which is a $30 discount off the retail price. Barnes and Noble also gave shoppers the option of 30 pecent off any one item online or New York Times bestselling books at 50 percent off.
Sears.com has some awesome Cyber Monday 2011 deals for shoppers who were looking for more high end or specialized items. They had a NordicTrack ACT Elliptical priced at just $749, which included free delivery. Normally, the price of it is $1299. The Craftsman 200pc MTS set was available at $100 off the normal price. An even more impressive $150 savings was available for the Sterling SIlver 0.18ctw diamond stud earring set. Normally priced at $129.99, the GE Create 12MP digital camera was just $49.99 for Cyber Monday 2011.
Busted Tees did a tiered savings program for Cyber Monday 2011. The earlier you shopped with them, the better your savings. Until 6 a.m., the offer was 30 percent off anything site wide. That offer dropped to 20 percent off after 6 a.m. And it dropped to just 15 percent after 2 p.m.
Musicians could get good deals on Cyber Monday 2011 from the Guitar Center website. Thousands of products were not only marked down on the site, but were available with free shipping. Plus, there was a special coupon code offered that gave 15 percent off a single item. However, that was limited to a $500 savings cap.
Stores were not the only ones to offer deals to consumers for Cyber Monday 2011. The New York Times has a subscription deal that gave new subscribers a 50 percent discount. Domain name registrars and hosting companies, such as Name Cheap and HostGator, ran deals all day on domain name transfers, web hosting packages and new domain name registrations. Art.com offered shoppers 30 percent off all orders, regardless of size, for Cyber Monday only.
Groupon started their Cyber Monday deals on Black Friday and continued them through Monday at midnight. Consumers could get $40 worth of custom designed girls clothing for just $20. The Sharper Image online store was also offered a $50 Groupon for just $25. A Magic School Bus Science Club membership was available at a price of $120, with the normal price being $239.88. A $59.99 iPod travel speaker system by Memorex was available for $20. Fanny Wang on-ear earphones were just $85. A Frisper vacuum seal kit from Oliso was available at 59 percent off via Groupon. Numerous magazine subscriptions were available at 74 percent off, including Newsweek and Women’s Health. AT&T was offered deals on new cell phones on their wireless website. For instance, the Motorola Atrix 4G, BlackBerry 9810 and Samsung Infuse 4G were all available for just one penny as part of the AT&T Wireless Cyber Monday 2011 deal. You just had to sign a 2-year contract to get the penny price.
The Ultimate List of Awesome Cyber Monday Websites and Resources Online:
