Retailers Capitalize on Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the final day of the busiest holiday shopping weekend, and while the day used to hurt brick and mortar stores, some retail experts now say it could help drive people to make more in-store purchases.

The Alabama Retail Association predicts this will be the strongest holiday shopping season on record for the state. They predict Alabamians will spend more than $12 billion.

What happens when a chunk of that money is spent online, is this a loss for traditional brick and mortar stores?

Suzanna Wasserman with the Shoppes at Eastchase says many stores are now filling online orders through local stores, not out-of-state warehouses.

“So they have a completely separate goal and they’re allowed to pick up additional sales throughout the holiday season by fulfilling those online orders,” Wasserman explained.

Melissa Warnke with the Alabama Retail Association says these strategies are boosting in-store purchases on Cyber Monday, a day where in-store purchases are traditionally lower.

“We’ve seen some interesting things happen in that Cyber Monday shopping is actually driving a lot of brick and mortar foot traffic,” Warnke shared.

According to the National Retail Federation, 75 million people are expected to participate in Cyber Monday shopping.