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Monday, November 28, 2005

Black Friday turns to Cyber Monday

Well all of my slacker friends, who should now be working diligently but are instead surfing the web doing your Christmas , Chanaka, Kwanza, or other holiday shopping...
I caught ya!



This year I did my cyber shopping at Amazon.com for the most part, they are offering free shipping, so the benefit of walking into a store to save shipping costs are moot.

Of course when you use the above banner to access Amazon.com I get a small commission, so if you are planning on cyber shopping instead of working help a brother and use my banner..

Black Friday, is the day when it is said that retailers go from operating in heard to operating in the black.
I have 15 years of retail management, and ownership experience, and to those retailers I say.. must be nice, to be able to opperate in the red at all.. Shit I had to turn a profit every week, or face closure.. Okay not every week, but most.

Or I suppose you could say, that in the last 10% of the year all sales were profit? Operating at a 10% margin (net profit) is about typical for retail, so perhaps it is just how you look at the numbers?
If you look at it in the tax liberation day mode, that model makes sense. But believe me, as a retailer I had to make profit every sale.. and so will all of the retailers you go to visit this holiday season. Don't get caught up in the hype.

Cyber Monday, a new theme for retailers, it is the day when online shopping is king. I wish I had had a cyber store back in my retail days. I have found it easier to turn a profit with a cyber store than a actual physical location, one thing for sure there is a lot less overhead, and per-sale man hour costs are much lower too.
It is no wonder that Amazon and other online retailers can sell for less.. There e's just a lot less cost involved, in getting your audience's attention and then the actual cost associated with making the transaction, are lower too, less people, no high retail rents, etc, etc. Even advertising costs can be considerably lower per person reached, as long as you keep a good SEO guy/gal on staff.

So to all of you cyber shoppers, I wish you well in your hunt(s), and if you get an itch to do a good thing for a complete stranger, shop amazon.com using this banner...


tags: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, cybermonday, "Black Friday", "cyber Monday", blackmonday" "online Shopping", online shoping, onlineshopping.

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