Cyber Monday vs. Black Friday: By the numbers

For hordes of dedicated bargain hunters, getting up early to deal hunt on Black Friday is as much a holiday tradition as turkey and family dysfunction. But reports indicate that in-store sales have been "dreary" in recent years, as holiday shoppers increasingly go online to look for bargains on the day after Thanksgiving and the so-called "Cyber Monday" that follows. (Watch a local report about Target on Black Friday.) Here, a by-the-numbers guide to the evolving holiday-sales adventure:

1869

Year the phrase "Black Friday" was coined; it originally referred to a catastrophic stock market crash

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

2005

Year the phrase "Cyber Monday" was coined by the National Retail Federation's Shop.org as a "gimmick to jump-start online sales in the holiday season"

$887 million

Online sales revenue generated on Cyber Monday in 2009, a 5 percent increase over the previous year — matching the record for the "heaviest online spending day" ever (December 9, 2008)

$595 million

Online sales revenue generated on Black Friday in 2009, a 10 percent increase over the previous year

$318 million

Online sales revenue generated on Thanksgiving Day itself last year, an 11 percent increase from the previous year

138 million

Number of people who plan to shop in stores this Black Friday weekend, according to a preliminary survey by the National Retail Federation (though more than half say they will wait to see if the price reductions are worth fighting the crowds and cold)

14.3 percent

The amount e-commerce spending is expected to rise this year, as more shoppers shun brick-and-mortar stores and shop online, according to New York's eMarketer research firm

64 percent

Number of U.S. households with broadband access in 2009 according to census data

55 percent

U.S. households with internet access in 2001

Sources: Washington Post (2), PC World, Tech Crunch, comScore, Home Accents Today, PR-USA.net, Digital Trends, Yahoo, New York Times