UK Embraces “Mega Monday”, Consumers Shift Habits
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UK Embraces “Mega Monday”, Consumers Shift Habits

14th December 2012

On State of Search we have talked about watching trends and making use of the ‘right time’ when it comes to selling online a few times before. James Murray for example highlighted the importance of Halloween when it comes to searches about contact lenses. And Gianluca Fiorelli just yesterday explained how planning a launch of a movie like the Hobbit has a lot to do with the right timing of your marketing efforts.

With the holiday season just around the corner this topic is ‘hot’ again, since retailers are getting ready to get the attention of those who are looking for (last minute) Christmas shopping opportunities. And with Thanksgiving just behind us we can see how having a good strategy can have the right impact.

Thanksgiving has always had ‘Black Friday’ the day after. This is the day on which shoppers go out before the break of dawn to be the first at the shops who are giving big discounts to their products. I remember the first time I was in the US on a black Friday, how busy was that! With the rise of the web we saw another thing emerge: the online version of the Black Friday: Cyber Monday. Something which was again specifically US focussed at first. But it now seems that the UK has been turned around as well: “Mega Monday” is booming.

This is an out coming of a research done by Marin Software who been analysing Impressions and Clicks across their UK retail client base for the last month. They are seeing three trends: “Mega Monday” Booms, US “Cyber Monday” drives UK intrigue, but not clicks and The Rise of “Super Sundays”.

Marin explains that in the last few years the UK retail industry’s PR teams have been trying to get the UK to do a similar thing as the US is doing with Cyber Mondays, using the term “Mega Monday”. That never ‘really’ took off, until this year. Marin Software says:

“There is a very clearly defined spike in paid search clicks on the 3rd December, which is 13% more than the next biggest Monday on the 26th November. UK retailers have finally succeeded in creating a successful Mega Monday buzz online.”

If you look at the graph of Marin it even shows that the UK outsells the US on their territory:

Marin-Click-Volume-UK-2

UK consumer stay within the UK

The second trend which Marin noted was the fact that US’s Cyber Monday has an impact on the UK as well. US businesses off course know that the world is bigger than just the US (yes, really) and they are trying to get traction outside of the US as well. However, the UK consumers apparently weren’t ready for that. Although UK consumers looked at the offers, the click volume was lower than Mega Monday’s. Which can have something to do with the eagerness of buying from ‘home territory’ or, as Marin suggests, the November paycheque wasn’t in yet.

Marin-Top-5-UK-Click-Days-4

Super Sunday?

Finally Marin also notes an interesting other shift. Sunday doesn’t seem to be the ‘day off’ anymore, but seems to be shifting towards a ‘shopping day’, at least online. Sundays in November and December 2012 increased in prominence, even outranking Mondays.

Marin’s research, even though small, suggests the consumers are changing their habits. Where the ‘offline’ behaviour used to be leading, now online behaviour, with Sundays, Mega Mondays and more, seems to be much more leading. Which off course brings more opportunities for the marketers.

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Written By
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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