While most traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have their banner sales day on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, last year’s sales stats revealed that online merchants have their own super sales day on the Monday following Thanksgiving, since dubbed “Cyber Monday“. While the moniker seems like a slick marketing term, the results bear out its aptness. Apparently, right after the long weekend, shoppers start in earnest to find the gifts they need, and those who do their shopping online make the most of their computers at work and home on Cyber Monday. Online retailers have responded by extending sales past the long Thanksgiving weekend.
If you’re shopping online this year, a good idea is to use the price comparison engines to find the best prices as well as merchant ratings: Froogle, Yahoo Shopping, MySimon and if you’re looking specifically for computers, accessories or electronics, I like to use CNET’s Shopper.com, PriceWatch and iBuyer. I would also highly recommend that you stick with highly rated vendors – you may spend a few dollars more, but it’s worth it for the peace of mind that you’ll actually receive what you ordered, that you will have someone to call/e-mail if something is wrong with your order or if you wish to return an item.