How do They Already Know Cyber Monday's a Success

The Associated Press is already repeating their Black Friday performance. Of course when the final numbers were tallied, Black Friday was ho hum compared to the rhetoric AP used to describe the shopping. Before Cyber Monday is even close to being over, the AP reports online sales are already up 20%.

Now, I don’t know if I need to remind you, the shopping opportunities on the Web are vast. How could they possibly have those figures? It’s like election night exit polls for John Kerry—so much excitement for Democrats but the truth is still waiting.

Apparently there is an analytics company out of San Mateo, California called Coremetrics that analyzes the total sales on the Internet. I am just asking why would any online marketer want a third party tracking their sales for? Does this make any sense? For this company to have an accurate projection, there are far too many variables, and I can’t imagine every major online retailer would want such a company tracking their sales activities. That’s too intrusive for most businesses, isn’t it?

Like retail, the competition has become so intense that it seems we hear of a pissing war daily between Walmart and Amazon. Sales may be up 20% but profits may be another story. Giving something away, which it seems is likely isn’t necessarily good for the economy either. When you mark down something $50 that sales retail at $200, you are destroying your margins. No big profits—less likelihood of hiring.

While a 20% increase may also sound like a lot compared to last year, and I do believe there is pathos in the headline, the bottom line is online sales only account for a little less than ten percent of the total holiday sales. They can spin this like the economy is chugging along, but seriously there is been minimal retail growth from 2008 even with the 20% increase in sales this Cyber Monday. Besides, it’s all speculation at this point. There is still six hours left to go on the East Coast.