Online shopping to surge on Cyber Monday

Whatever the exact date, fashion vendors also anticipate riding the online spending wave to Christmas.

‘Every year we see a significant spike in both traffic and sales on the last Monday and Tuesday of November,’ My-Wardrobe founder Sarah Curran said. ‘This then kick starts what could be termed Cyber Month as traffic and sales grow in large spikes every week up until Christmas.’

Partly a function of paycheck timing, partly a matter of the dwindling number of shopping days before Christmas, Cyber Monday is the web counterpart to the US shopping tradition of Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving represents the official start of the Christmas shopping season, with shopping malls, national big-box retailers and designer brands enticing spenders with high discounts and special offers.

This year, retailers and analysts expect the two-week period starting on Cyber Monday to be more important than ever on both sides of the Atlantic.

‘Cyber Monday signifies the kick-off to the Christmas season online,’ Matches founder Ruth Chapman said, noting that the timing allows Matches to emphasize newly landed pre-collections. ‘Our focus, as well as traditional Christmas gifting, is to engage our customers with the increasingly important pre- and Cruise collections. Pre is so influential because our clients are calling out for their first taste of the new season.’

IMRG, a UK industry body for online reta