Over the last couple of years, many people have proclaimed “Cyber Monday” to be dead. And because the actual reason behind Cyber Monday is no longer valid, I would have to agree that in fact there is no reason for a Cyber Monday any longer. As most of you know by now, Cyber Monday was coined as the first Monday after Thanksgiving when many people would return to work and do a significant amount of shopping online. This was because, at the time, many people had a fast internet connection at work, but a slower dial up connection at home. With the abundance of in-home high speed internet, the thought that people rely on employers for internet usage is long outdated. Our studies show that 86% of people that visit our home improvement sites originate from home high speed connections, with 9% visiting from work and 2% visiting from home dial up connections). And considering the amount of internet monitoring in place at many employers nowadays, combined with the current economic climate, many people do not have the luxury of shopping online during the work day even if it were a better overall browsing experience.

Considering the whole thought of a Cyber Monday is long outdated, the next step is to look at whether or not the idea of Cyber Monday even makes sense from a business strategy standpoint. If there is an event created by marketers and the media, ideally it would be a day when you have a captive audience that can fully participate in the events taking place. With Cyber Monday being a day when most people are working, this eliminates millions of potential consumers from even being able to participate in the events. Yet according to a survey done for Shop.org, nearly 82% of online retailers were going to have a Cyber Monday sale taking place online on Monday, December 1, 2008. These promotions include many free shipping deals to encourage people to shop online rather than in person as the shipping costs often cause consumers to buy things in person when the retailer is local and the item is in stock. However, most retailers miss a great opportunity to be innovative in their thinking and capitalize on the unofficial beginning of the holiday shopping season, with Cyber Monday being mistake number one.

So, what should retailers do to promote online spending this holiday season?

1. First, begin with replacing any and all Cyber Monday events with online-only sales that take place on Thanksgiving Day. Maybe someone creative can come up with a catchy promotional name for it like Surf N Turk(ey) Specials or something. Regardless of what it is called, it gives consumers an additional day to shop – without competition from most brick and mortar retail stores that are closed for the holiday. Promoting various specials throughout the day on Thanksgiving day would generate a far greater customer base to reach than on any one day the following week when all retail stores are open and people have limited time available to shop.

People have time on Thanksgiving, whether they are spending time with family, watching football on TV, or eating turkey and stuffing all day long. Many families that gather on Thanksgiving do things like draw names for a gift exchange, or have grandparents asking for gift ideas for the children. There is no better time to present your store to them with a special sale than when people are gathered and discussing potential purchases. E-commerce stores that feature wishlist functionality could incorporate special sales on items in someone’s wishlist for Thanksgiving Day only. Giving consumers an extra reason to shop on Thanksgiving gives retailers an extra day of revenue that historically has been non-existent or under promoted online.

2. Online retailers should offer free shipping during the entire holiday season, but especially on Surf N Turkey Day. There should be no barriers to prevent the visitor from completing the transaction. Many retailers offer free shipping once a certain order total is reached, but I would advise keeping that total as low as possible during the holiday season. It would be better to offer tiered savings than set a minimum order for free shipping, as a 10% off $25, 15% off $50, and 20% off $100 promotion works as a much better incentive to buy more products than simply offering free shipping.

3. Specials for Surf N Turkey Day should be timed to be delivered throughout the day, so people don’t have to wake up at 3 a.m. to do their shopping. Rather, sales could be set up to kick off new products every two hours throughout the day, reaching the largest audience possible that even Black Friday sales fail to do (many people aren’t waking up that early to go shopping and fight the crowds even if you’re giving away really great things for free). Emphasis should be on later in the day on Thanksgiving, such as late afternoon or evening, to avoid the prime Thanksgiving dinner plans that many people enjoy. Promotions should be scheduled all day long, but should lead up to special sales and offerings later in the day. Best Buy is doing something similar this year, with Black Friday promotions available on their website on Thanksgiving Day – however, they aren’t publishing what time these offers are available. Most people won’t have the time or interest to keep checking BestBuy.com on Thanksgiving Day and ultimately won’t end up shopping there at all.

4. Limit promotions on specific items that will ultimately sell out quickly. Instead, focus on what goals you are trying to accomplish. The goal is to build a loyal customer base to sell to in the future, not just to sell am off brand HDTV to someone for $100 under cost. Offers could be tied to these goals, such as 30% off total order on Thanksgiving Day for registering for your mailing list, with a unique coupon code being emailed immediately. Most promotions should be for a certain percentage off an order, to encourage more sales not specifically targeted to one order. Maybe go all out with a free gift of outstanding value with any order over $300 (not a free mousepad, but something someone would actually want and pay for).

5. Promote the heck out of it, for free. Retailers that complain that their Black Friday ads were leaked online are clueless. Actually going out of your way to eliminate buzz and advertising for your company, for free, is one of the dumbest moves any company can make. I would strongly encourage any retailer to “leak” the information about your Surf N Turkey Day sale, and maybe even show some disappointment that it has leaked. But the more people that know about it and talk about it BEFORE the actual sale, the better. And there is no better advertising than free, blog driven advertising. You may not even need to take out an advertisement at all, if what you are offering is good enough to cause chatter in the blogosphere.

6. One final one, for good measure. Make sure your site can handle the spike in traffic. Two years ago, Sears.com ran a Black Friday special on their website which was so heavily visited that many people couldn’t complete checkout. I was one of them, with a shopping cart worth a couple of hundred dollars that was unable to have the transaction complete. I even called their customer service line that was supposed to process the transaction for me, and call me back when they could place the order. Let’s just say I’m still waiting for that phone call, and I haven’t been to their website or their store since. A poor user experience such as this can and will cause more harm than good, and could cost you a customer forever. It is essential to know that your site’s infrastructure can handle any traffic that you send to it.