Where to Shop on Cyber Monday to Save

The Black Friday dust still hasn’t settled, and already retailers are gearing up promoting the Cyber Monday deals on the horizon in just about 48 hours.

Retailers take the Black Friday approach that allows it to spill over from Thursday on Thanksgiving to the Black Friday event itself and then into the weekend as well, though Saturday and Sunday.

Cyber Monday is its own entity, and typically features products and deals that are similar but also can be different than what you’d expect on Black Friday. The real twist is that Black Friday, once devoured by the average consumer as a get up at 5 a.m. and get the best deals possible has transitioned to an extent into more of an online shopping day, too, although still has that sense of “door buster” deal mentality to rise and shine early.

Cyber Monday is the best of both worlds, with retailers such as Amazon and Walmart crashing the party with online deals you’ve come to expect in recent years, along with sales that are off the proverbial charts for those retailers and the event in general.

This year, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, today’s Small Business Saturday and the pending Cyber Monday all had with it an impressive share of the nearly 164 million people expected to take part in the shopping weekend.

Thanksgiving was around 21 percent of the the 164, while Black Friday was 71 percent and 41 percent for Small Business Saturday (78 percent say just to show support) and another 20 percent on Sunday; Cyber Monday checked in with 75 million shoppers and 46 percent, ranking second only to the Black Friday numbers.^[1]

The same study showed that 65 percent of all shoppers do so just because of the deals they expect to get, and another 26 percent cited tradition and 23 said it’s just “something to do.”

Although Cyber Monday is second to Black Friday, the Monday shopping holiday of sorts has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years with a huge spike from 2016 to last year’s numbers. Last year, sales increased 16.8 percent from 2016 and sales on Cyber Monday were just under the 7 billion dollar mark, with the highlight being 2 billion in mobile sales in a 24-hour time period, which suggests that Cyber Monday is not only gaining in popularity with consumers but also that mobile buying is becoming more commonplace.^[2]

This year, sales for Cyber Monday are expected to come in just under and around the 8 billion dollar mark.^[3]

The correlation between Cyber Monday, trending upward in sales and the mobile ordering factor can be traced to a few components, most notably the idea that you can enjoy shopping from the privacy of your own home, and Cyber Monday has its own share of products to choose from that help differentiate it from Black Friday to an extent.

You also can’t overlook the technology aspect from the standpoint of who the most common Cyber Monday customers are: typically ages 18-24 and 25-34, more so than those who hit 35 and older.

Approximately 32 percent of ages 25-34 shopped on Cyber Monday in 2016, versus 29 percent in 2015; the 18-24 range in 2015 was 28 percent and remained about the same in 2016; collectively 2016 saw 60 percent of the buyers on Cyber Monday range from ages 18-34.^[4]

As far as the types of products sold, you have an array of them, but typically you’ll see video games, consoles and bundles for the gamer on your shopping list, in addition to technology that centers on tablets and toys, mostly.

Last year’s more popular Cyber Monday buys were Google Chromecast, Apple iPads, AirPods from Apple, Samsung Tablets and Nintendo Switch, along with Sony PlayStation VR, Microsoft Xbox One X and an array of toys that included PJ Masks, Hatchimals and the LOL Surprise Dolls, just to name a few.^[5]

This year, retailers have already rolled out some stellar Cyber Monday ads to go along with and in conjunction with Black Friday, and here’s a sample size of what you can expect, what’s worth buying and which retailers are going all-in for the biggest online shopping day of the year.

Walmart: Attempting to gain on Amazon online sales, Walmart comes out swinging

Walmart knows that when it comes to online sales on Cyber Monday, as much as they’re the biggest retailer in the world, when to take a backseat.

Amazon is king (more on those stats later), but Walmart isn’t about to go down without a fight, and that translates into bigger and better Cyber Monday deals this season.

Walmart takes a page from the Amazon playbook with free two-day shipping on items over $35, and also has laptops, video games and consoles, phones and even a few deals from Black Friday they’re carrying over into Monday.

Straight Talk iPhone 8 Plus’ are $599 and $499 for the iPhone 8 alone, along with MSI Gaming Laptop for $799, down $200 and two 50-inch TVs at $447 for a 58 inch Samsung and 50-inch Polaroid 4K for $179, down $220; Black Friday is carried over into Cyber Monday on gamer deals as well with the Sony PlayStation 4 Slim 1TB Spiderman Bundle for $199, and the Nintendo Switch System, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for $299, not to mention exclusive Cyber Monday deals on gaming: Nintendo Switch Console with Mario Plus Rabbids Kingdom Battle for $299, down $60.^[6]

The common them is extending sales that people might not have got to on Black Friday and sprinkling in some more of the same type products just for Cyber Monday.

Amazon: Cyber Monday is biggest day of year, even better than Prime Day

As lauded and welcomed as Cyber Monday is for Amazon, you also have to recall that Amazon has its Prime Day, which offers an array of deals that rivals any holiday sales pitch from any retailer.

Last year, Amazon sold more on Cyber Monday online than its Prime Day in that same year.^[7]

This year, Amazon is ready to continue its Cyber Monday dominance as it is a clear-cut, ahead-of-the-rest winner versus other retailers.

Amazon is all about free shipping for Cyber Monday as you’d expect but the deals are epic, and Amazon actually goes above and beyond with “Cyber Week” offering deals that are comparable to the Cyber Monday event, although the most competitive prices are on the Monday.

Amazon is boasting a $29 Fire 7 Tablet, a $399 Xbox One X 1TB console, a $19 Amazon Echo and the $299 Nintendo Switch Mario Kart Bundle; 50 percent off Bose Headphones and its Amazon Fire TV Stick for $24 and $34.^[8]

If you’re in the market for a TV, Amazon is offering a $299 deal on a Toshiba 50 inch 4K Ultra HD model, and 20 percent off all Sony TV’s of that same variety (4K Ultra HD TV’s).^[9]

Even more TV’s are on sale for Amazon as well, including Polaroid 43 and 55 inch 4K TV’s for $129 and $199, respectively, along with 15 percent off Samsung NU8 Series 2018 models and that same discount on LG 2018 Smart 4K TV’s.^[10]

Target: The up and comer is fighting each year for market share of Cyber Monday

When compared to Walmart and Amazon, Target is a distant third in online sales as it relates to Cyber Monday.

But Target, in recent years, has shown growth, and one statistic (albeit on Black Friday online shopping) is proof that that the red bull’s eye brand is headed in the right direction.

Target’s online sales for Black Friday grew 44 percent versus last year, a marked improvement and better results than any other retailer online.^[11]

Target is featuring an array of Cyber Monday deals, most notably the “go to” for the brand, and that is 15 percent off almost everything in the store, and specific deals that include kitchen appliances and apparel as part of the deal.

Deals on Cyber Monday include buy one, get one 60 percent off all apparel (that’s a day early as in November 25), along with the same deal (not to worry) on Cyber Monday, too, along with iRobot Roomba 960 for $449, down more than $200, and the Dyson V8 Absolute down more than $150 to $349 price tag.^[12]

Target features Cyber Monday, as you’d expect but does, as per the above report, have Cyber Week, and that means November 27 isn’t left out, either with 30 percent off Target home brands.

Best Buy: The blue shirt brand is breaking out the big sales for Cyber Monday

The tech world that is Best Buy isn’t a fan of being behind the three aforementioned retailer on Cyber Monday, so they’ll hit that technology pavement running this coming Monday with an array of deals online that focus on, as you’d expect, phones, laptops and tablets, just to name a few categories.

Best Buy also is in the headphones and accessories market to combat Amazon as well, starting with the Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones at $150 off the retail price.^[13]

Apple: iPad deals are your best bet

Apple iPhones deals are more of a Walmart buy, since the latter offers better discounts, but Apple gets much more aggressive price wise on its tablets, namely $100 discounts on the 2018 iPads, in addition to the deals on the always popular and strong selling MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, with up to $200 off on each, and last year’s Apple Watch 3 at a $50 discount although nothing on this year’s 4 model.^[14]

You’d have to assume that Amazon, Walmart and Target, once again are going to be at the top of the retail food chain when the dust settles on the 2018 version of Cyber Monday.

Last year, Amazon had more than 8 million transactions and Walmart was second at just over 1.2 million, a fairly huge disparity from first to second place, with Amazon taking in 60 percent of the sales and Walmart around 8.5 percent; Target was second at 670,000 transactions and 4.6 percent of the marketplace.^[15]

Most of the other retailers on the list above are also top sellers from 2017, and you wouldn’t expect that much to change, overall.

That said, the penchant for online sales, whether you’re talking about Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday or Cyber Monday is trending upward in a big way.

So what will change, most likely as 2018 turns to 2019 and so on and so forth is more of a want and need from consumers to see better online deals, promotions and sales to, what one would assume, supplant the need to get up and go on any of those aforementioned shopping days, and instead sit back, relax, point, click and continue to save on epic deals, but only minus the traffic, hustle, bustle and headache of leaving the house altogether.