Retailers pushing up Cyber Monday deals

Retailers pushing up Cyber Monday deals

'Cyber Monday' Gains Rivals

More Web Retailers Push Up Their Holiday Promotions Ahead of Thanksgiving

"Christmas creep" is spreading through the Internet.

In recent years, Web retailers made hay out of "Cyber Monday," realizing many office workers shopped from their desks right after the Thanksgiving holiday. But just as brick-and-mortar stores are pushing holiday promotions earlier and earlier on the calendar, the Web version of Christmas creep means online stores including Amazon.com Inc. and closely held Jewelry Television have moved up their own promotions, in some cases overlapping with Halloween. 

Earlier promotions are one way retailers are dealing with increased competition and the uncertain economy. Unsure of how much people will spend these holidays, Internet stores hope to lock up customers as soon as they can.

That was the mindset of Tim Engle, the chief strategy officer of Jewelry Television, when he sat down with fellow executives in the early fall to discuss the end-of-the-year game plan. He said they were worried about how weak customer spending might be this holiday season. "We just felt the pressure," he said.

Mr. Engle and his team came up with a solution: The jewelry retailer's website would hold sales on the four Mondays before the actual Cyber Monday. The first was Oct. 31. 

"There are going to be fewer of those dollars around this, so that's why we had to get in early," he said. He said the decision was spurred in part by competitors also starting promotions earlier.

Internet shopping is expected to be bigger than ever this holiday season. Industry tracker eMarketer estimates online holiday sales in the U.S. will grow 16.8%, compared with a year earlier, to $46.7 billion. Online sales make up about 8% of total domestic retail sales, according to Forrester Research.

One of the biggest days for Internet shopping has been Cyber Monday, a term the National Retail Federation coined in 2005 —back when fast connections were more often found in the workplace than at home. It soon became the online parallel to the Black Friday scene at the mall. Spending on Cyber Monday will be around $1.2 billion, predicted research-firm comScore Inc. 

The stores trying to grab those dollars earlier include the world's biggest online retailer, Amazon. Last year, it started its "early Black Friday" shop in mid-November. This year, it opened Nov. 1.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on the Seattle-based retailer's strategy.

Staples Inc., long a player on Cyber Monday, began offering weekly Monday promotions for its Web store on Nov. 7 — its earliest holiday start ever — and will continue them through Christmas in response to what it described as a surge in early visitor traffic.

"Customers are showing an appetite for starting earlier," said Steve Bussberg, the senior vice president ofa Staples.com. "We see a lot of traffic to our websites even before Black Friday, so the customer clearly has interest." 

The Framingham, Mass., office-supply giant also is offering Web specials on Thanksgiving Day in addition to its Cyber Monday deals, which it is starting on Sunday for the second consecutive year. "Our customers are interested in starting on Sunday before they go to the office," he said.

Retailers pushing up Cyber Monday deals