Congratulations to all of the online retailers who took advantage of Cyber Monday this year.  It was only a year ago that the term was added to the vocabulary of the holiday season.  In 2006, armed with the knowledge that this term has caught on to describe the kick-off of the online holiday season and the online equivalent of Black Friday, a number of retailers across the country took advantage of this industry development to use Cyber Monday as a platform for launching their online holiday campaign.

And, Shop.org is very proud to have launched www.cybermonday.com as a central location for Cyber Monday and holiday promotions from nearly 400 merchants.  Thanks again to Mall Networks for building the site for Shop.org.  With cybermonday.com, Shop.org gets into the business of affiliate marketing.  All of Shop.org’s proceeds from this site go to our Ray M. Greenly Scholarship Fund, which provides tuition assistance to college students seeking e-commerce careers.  To date, we’ve raised more than $100,000 for the scholarship fund!  I couldn’t be more proud of such an innovative way to honor the memory of Ray, a Shop.org team member for nearly seven years and who served as Shop.org’s VP of Research and Membership until he passed away in September 2005 from cancer.

Shop.org’s involvement in Cyber Monday has been an interesting ride.  When we coined the term last year, the media response was nothing like I’ve ever experienced.  Front page stories in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post as well as extensive coverage in national TV news.  As a big fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the high point for me was seeing an hilarious bit about Cyber Monday by “Senior Retail Analyst” Rob Corddry.  Although, as they say, no good deed goes unpunished.  We continue to see chatter describing Cyber Monday as all hype.  And, some reporters and bloggers are still attempting to debunk the myth that Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year – a claim that wasn’t made by Shop.org or any other credible industry research firm.

In any event, hopefully the Cyber Monday media coverage helped energize the kick-off of the online holiday shopping season.  There are only a few shopping days left before Christmas, but based on data I’m seeing from the Shop.org/BizRate Research eHoliday Mood Study and other sources, it’s safe to declare that the 2006 online holiday season was a smashing success.

Good luck with the rest of your holiday season.  And, please don’t forget to tell your friends, family or anyone else to start their holiday shopping (or redeem their gift cards) at cybermonday.com and help raise money for a good cause.