Inbox Insider: Cyber Monday, an inbox full of deals

There was no missing Cyber Monday in my inbox this week. I received a ton of holiday-related e-mails with subject lines such as: “The Cyber Monday sale,” “Warm wishes, 20% off and free shipping,” “35% off Cyber Monday only,” and “Cyber Monday: Web special 20% off through tomorrow midnight ONLY‏.” It was certainly a good day to save money shopping online.

While it was a bit overwhelming to receive so many commercial e-mails in one day, the value of the offers made it appealing. And this year, retailers are really taking advantage of offers to attract consumers who have less to spend.

Cyber Monday's numbers have yet to come in, but according to predictions by Shop.org's eHoliday Survey, conducted by BIGresearch in advance, 87.1% of retailers were to have run Cyber Monday promotions, up from 83.7% last year and 72.2% in 2007. The survey also found that 42.9% of promotions were expected to have been specific deals, 32.9% one-day sales and 15.7% free shipping on all purchases.

It's no surprise that e-mail is the main channel for promoting Cyber Monday offers. According to the Shop.org survey, 50% of retailers were likely to use e-mail to distribute promotions and deals to shoppers for the popular online shopping day.