Best Day for Businesses: Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday

Black Friday may be the most famous shopping day of the year but is it really as critical to businesses as Cyber Monday?

Black Friday continues to be one of the most hyped and busiest shopping days but it could certainly be losing value for businesses due to a combination of emerging factors.

For a start consumers are becoming much savvier about Black Friday shopping and discerning between real deals and those which aren’t, driving down the profits for businesses. Then of course there are considerations such as brick and mortar transactions providing skinnier profit margins than online ones and the ability to more easily convert online shoppers into loyal and repeat customers and reducing the expense of marketing to them for the rest of the year.

Cyber Monday is no small revenue day either. ComScore reported the first $1 billion sale day on Cyber Monday in 2010, followed by a 22% increase in spending last year, with even better numbers hoped for this year.

Businesses shouldn’t be confused by the “cyber” title either. According to Venture Beat and a survey by FatWallet, 62% of consumers expect to do more shopping this year and expect to find better deals on Monday. Plus, only around 30% specifically say they are shopping for tech deals, with clothing and toys even more popular.

More importantly, as seen with the current Wal-Mart staffing debacle and being held hostage by unions, those businesses who focus more energy on online shoppers and have toll free numbers and back up call centers on call don’t have to worry about their most important volume days being sabotaged by others.

However, Small Business Saturday and after Christmas shopping shouldn’t be discounted either. As a small business it is a great time to build loyalty among customers. Even if your organization is no longer a small business, don’t forget to support those around you.

Also recognize that after Christmas shopping is also becoming busier and more valuable to businesses due to the recent poor economy’s creation of more fragmented families and how inexpensive it is for companies to target online advertising campaigns.