Consumers Prefer Cyber Monday to Black Friday

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While many consumers (42%) think of Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, as an online memory-jogger to kick-start their holiday shopping plans, this year many shoppers are viewing Cyber Monday through the lens of a Click ‘n’ Save Day. In fact, more than 8 out of 10 shoppers will be on the look-out for discounts, 69% will be searching for free shipping, 53% will scour the web for one-day promotions and 32% will keep their eyes open for buy-one-get-one-free promotions, according to Shopzilla®. Cyber Monday has become so famous for its good deals that many consumers prefer waiting until Monday to shop online rather than heading out to the stores for the traditional Black Friday deals.

Even the browsers - not shoppers - are using Cyber Monday to strategically prowl the web for promotions and savings. Fifty-one percent say they will log on to check on deals, and 21% will comparison shop.

Cyber Monday has become synonymous with deals in the consumer’s mind because, of the 43% of consumers who said they shopped last Cyber Monday, 63% reported finding great deals. Not surprisingly, in this tough economy, they are on the hunt again.

In addition, retailers have been successful in getting the word out about their Cyber Monday promotions. Over three-fourths of consumers (76%) learn about Cyber Monday deals via the Internet, with 48% of online shoppers hearing about Cyber Monday deals from emails and 13% learning about deals from the news. There are also many Cyber Monday sites that aggregate offers such as cybermonday.com, gottadeal.com, couponmountain.com, dealtaker.com, bizrate.com and shopzilla.com -- and more than 78% of consumers say they find aggregator sites very helpful.

As a result of the promotional smorgasbord served up on Cyber Monday in the past, 45% report they prefer Cyber Monday over Black Friday and only 10% prefer Black Friday, which used to be the official ‘bargain-hunters’ paradise. This year on Cyber Monday, consumers should expect to be successful in their bargain shopping again. According to The eHoliday Survey conducted by Shop.org and Shopzilla, 83.7 percent of retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 72.2 percent last year. The most popular promotions are expected to be specific deals (38.8%), email campaigns (32.7%), and one-day sales (24.5%). Additionally, nearly one-fourth of retailers (22.5%) will offer free shipping on all purchases.

About Shopzilla, Inc.:

Shopzilla® is the largest, easiest-to-use and most comprehensive shopping search site on the Web. With an index of millions of products from thousands of stores. Shopzilla empowers shoppers to instantly find virtually anything on sale from anyone, anywhere on the Web -- at the best price for their lifestyle. Shopzilla also operates the BizRate Research® division and consumer feedback network that collects more than one million consumer reviews of stores and products each month. Based in Los Angeles, Shopzilla has sites in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany and the company is owned by Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. (NYSE: SNI), which include national lifestyle TV networks such as HGTV, The Food Network, Fine Living and more. For more information, please visit www.shopzilla.com http://www.shopzilla.com .

About the Study:

The study was based on 2,035 online shoppers from November 14-17, 2008 conducted by BizRate Research, a Shopzilla company. The sample has a +/- 1.1% margin of error.

Shopzilla
Mariella Souflis, 212-551-4820
msouflis@waggeneredstrom.com