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NewslettersLocal businesses attempt to participate in Cyber Monday sales rush
mcovington@beaufortgazette.com
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Bargain hunters packed brick-and-mortar retail stores during Black Friday weekend, but nearly 85 million Americans were expected to let their fingers do the shopping Monday when online retailers offered their own blowout deals, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation.
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The NRF coined the term "Cyber Monday" in 2005 to describe the Monday after Thanksgiving, when Americans returned to work from vacation and started gift shopping online. Consumers now often shop online from their homes and even cell phones, but Cyber Monday is still considered a bellwether for the holiday season for Internet retailers. Growth in online sales this year is expected to be 1 percent or less.
Many local business owners already have gotten into the online game to connect with existing customers, reach new ones and sell products.
Virtual Marketing Concepts in Beaufort has designed nearly 400 Web sites for local businesses since it opened 11 years ago. Interest in establishing an online presence has grown in the past two years amidst a struggling economy downturn and slumping sales at local stores, office manager Walter Raczkowski said.
"They have the opportunity to reach a larger audience for reasonable price," Raczkowski said of his company's clients. "And a Web site advertises 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Virtual Marketing Concepts also operates beaufortonline.com, an Internet marketplace where users can find links to the Web homes for many local stores.
"It just gives potential customers the ability to reach a potential service based not only on the services that are provided by the business, but on a particular geographic location," Raczkowski said.
Port Royal Market owner Linda Aspden has had an informational Web site up for her business for the past three years but hopes a new e-commerce site eventually will generate up to 30 percent of her sales. Aspden sells gourmet foods and gift baskets at her retail store on Paris Avenue but will stick primarily to selling baskets on the site, which is scheduled to launch Dec. 14.
"There's always going to be special occasions, even in a down economy," she said. "We're hoping this is going to get us through the downturn of the economy. The Web site will be an addition and an enhancement for our local customers."
Bay Street Outfitters launched its Web site less than two months ago, said store owner Tony Royal. It's a "strictly experimental" venture he hopes will help current customers order merchandise when they're out of Beaufort for the winter or summer months, he said.
The response has been weak so far, but Royal thinks the site is too new to rate.
"We'd like to make sales and satisfy our customer base," he said.
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