The Consumer Is Far from Dead

We just had the most successful Cyber Monday in history with sales up 30%. Mobile sales were up the astonishing 70%. And all of this, on top of very strong Black Friday. What does it mean:

1) Online shopping – the future is here. People feel more comfortable doing it and this trend will only accelerate across the world. 5 years ago, people used to say that if you have online presence, the whole world is your potential customer. Today, if you don’t have an online presence, you basically don’t exist. $AMZN and $EBAY have been the biggest beneficiaries of this trend as they simply are mind share leaders in this category. It is their battle to lose. Brick and mortar shops are so far behind.

2) The U.S. consumer is alive and well and as we all know, its spending drives not only the U.S., but also the world economy. Some might opine that more people taking advantage of one-time deals means that the consumer is trapped and desperately looking for savings. At the end of the day, the mere fact that more people are spending more is indicative of improving consumer confidence. Maybe all that news about housing recovery is actually creating the so called “wealth effect” – when people feel good about their future, they tend to spend more.