DETROIT – And you thought no one knew you were doing your holiday shopping from your work computer.
Not only do they know, but the retail industry has christened the Monday after Thanksgiving as Cyber Monday, because the sales spike that happens that day is now too big to ignore.
More than a third of consumers – 37 percent, or 51.7 million people – said they will use Internet access at work to browse or buy gifts online this holiday season, according to a Shop.org and BizRate Research survey released this week.
A host of online retailers from Godiva.com to QVC.com are creating promotions to drive online shoppers to their Web sites Monday.
About 43 percent of online retailers are offering special deals on Cyber Monday, according to the survey. Deals will include free shipping, gifts with purchase and discounts.
Most people who shop online at work won’t admit it because it may make them appear to be slacking off or, more likely, it’s against company policy.
Calls to several companies in metro Detroit solicited a uniform “no comment” this week. Many companies did not want to appear unprofessional by even discussing whether their employees shop online at work.
One online shopper who works at a local college said she frequently browses various Web sites from her work computer on her lunch hour or when she has some down time. The worker requested anonymity for fear of being fired.
The survey found that 77 percent of online retailers said their sales increased substantially last year on the Monday after Thanksgiving.
And men were more likely to shop online from work, 42 percent, compared with 32 percent of women. The survey on consumers shopping at work was conducted for Shop.org by BIGresearch from Nov. 2-9 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.
“Men won’t take their buddies to a mall and ask if they chose the right gift, but they will ask their colleagues what they think of a gift they are selecting online,” said Lorrie Norrington, chief executive of Shopping.com, a comparison-shopping site.
Cyber Monday shoppers may go online at work because of high-speed Internet connections or because they were not able to finish their shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend. Some consumers are expected to shop on Cyber Monday from home after work.
Caryn Klebba, 30, a working mother from Berkley, Mich., said she shops online for the holidays, birthdays and weddings because her schedule is so full. But she usually doesn’t have time to shop online from work.
“Because of my schedule and the hecticness of balancing work and family, it is very hard to find time to shop,” Klebba said. “I love to put my son to bed and hop online and do my shopping. It is all about saving time.”
Jim Sluzewski, spokesman for Macy’s department store owner Federated Department Stores Inc., said the company has launched new promotions for the holidays to capture the online shopper’s attention.
It plans to give away a trip to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in 2006 in New York or $50,000. Shoppers can get a peel-and-win entry in stores and then go online to enter.
Besides the prizes, he said Macys.com shoppers will receive free shipping at certain times and lots of “great sales, good, affordable luxury and other opportunities to sweeten the pot,” he said.
“The trend has been emerging over the last several years and it actually makes a whole lot of sense,” Sluzewski said about Cyber Monday.
“There is generally a lot of traffic that happens during the day, we presume from computers in offices.”
More than 2.8 million people bought $417,000 of goods the Monday after Thanksgiving last year through Shopping.com.
That compares with 2.2 million people who generated $361,000 in sales for retailers on the comparison site the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2004.
Shopping.com said the most common hours for people to comparison shop are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“There are some big reasons people shop at the office,” Norrington said. “People are multitasking so much.”
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AP-NY-11-25-05 1936EST
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