Maine retailers seek to ring in Cyber Monday sales
Photo / Joshua Woroniecki, Pixabay
Almost 8 million more people are expected to shop on Cyber Monday than last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Three days after the biggest shopping day of the year, Maine retailers are betting on a business boost today via online Cyber Monday deals. L.L.Bean, Renys and smaller retailers are all offering Cyber Monday promotions.
The term for the Monday after Thanksgiving made its debut in November 2005 in a National Retail Federation press release that declared, "Cyber Monday quickly becoming one of the biggest online shopping days of the year."
The Washington, D.C.,-based trade organization notes that 63.9 million people nationwide are expected to shop on that day alone, bringing the total number of shoppers between Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday to 166.3 million.
That figure is almost 8 million more shoppers than last year, and is the highest estimate since the federation began tracking the data in 2017.
"While there is much speculation about inflation's impact on consumer behavior, our data tells us that this Thanksgiving holiday weekend will see robust store traffic with a record number of shoppers taking advantage of value prices," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a news release ahead of the holiday weekend.
"We are optimistic that retail sales will remain strong in the weeks ahead, and retailers are ready to meet consumers however they want to shop with great products at prices they want to pay."
Maine Cyber Monday deals include 10% off on L.L.Bean online purchases and free shipping for Renys online shoppers, or "Adventurers," who subscribe to the retailer's email newsletter.
Renys, which is based in Newcastle and has 17 stores in Maine, has an annual Early Bird Sale in early November, and offered 20% at all stores on Black Friday.
L.L. Bean is based in Freeport, where an oversized Bean Boot in front of the flagship store is a popular spot for photos.
"The entire Thanksgiving weekend is a significant sales period for us as the official start of the holiday season," said Jason Sulham, manager of public affairs at L.L. Bean. "We typically see that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two biggest days of the weekend, and comparable in sales volume."
In the sporting world, the Portland Sea Dogs baseball team is peddling Cyber Monday offers on merchandise and 2023 ticket packages on its website.
Among smaller, specialty retailers, Rockland-based Bixby Chocolate is also seeking a piece of the Cyber Monday action.
"This entire week we ran a gift bundle promotions and it has been very important to drive e-commerce sales," Kate McAleer, the company's founder, told Mainebiz. She said the bundle includes gifts at various price points.
McAleer said she decided to start the promotion earlier this shopping season to step in line with reports about consumer buying trends.
"Our program was the same across the 'BFCM' [Black Friday Cyber Monday] timeline including Shop Small Saturday," she said. "My goal is to try to keep the shopping experience as easy as possible."
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