Here’s 2012’s key online holiday shopping dates – with one surprise

Albizu Garcia
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:17:04 +0000
Web, black friday, cyber monday, green monday, holiday shopping dates, holiday shopping dates 2012, online spending, thanksgiving, thanksgiving day

While Cyber Monday has cemented itself as the single most important online holiday shopping date since 2010, a surprising trend has seen Thanksgiving Day emerge as a day used increasingly for shopping activity.

Thanksgiving’s five-year growth rate to 2011 has surged to 128%, surpassing Cyber Monday’s five-year growth rate of 106%, Black Friday’s 88% and Green Monday’s 71% growth rate.

While Thanksgiving is seeing the largest growth in terms of spend, it’s still far behind Cyber Monday. Last year consumers in the United States spent $479 million on Thanksgiving compared to $1.25 billion on Cyber Monday.

Overall, the holiday season growth rate over the past five years is 51%.

Key 2012 holiday season shopping days

Thanksgiving Day – November 22, 2012

Black Friday – November 23, 2012

Cyber Monday – November 26, 2012

Green Monday – December 10, 2012

Cyber Monday first earned its moniker in 2005 and, at the time, ranked between 8th and 12th among holiday season spending days. After some attractive discounts and heavy promotion by retailers, Cyber Monday became the third highest grossing holiday spending day in 2008. In 2009, Cyber Monday ranked second. Then in 2010, Cyber Monday became the single most important holiday season spending day and has retained that title since.

This year, spending is expected to exceed $1.5 billion on Cyber Monday.