Just another Mega-Monday

The Monday after the first weekend of December has been dubbed Mega Monday. It's been identified as the busiest day of online sales of the year. This year, according to The Times, the online tills will ring to the tune of £5 billion, with total online sales for December 2007 estimated at £15 billion.

"Monday is the traditional big day for online shopping because buyers usually turn to the internet after having failed to find what they wanted in shops at the weekend. They also go online to see if they can find a better deal on an item seen in a shop."

As an online incentive company, we see a similar pattern to e-commerce sites. Users of our iD-points products are redeeming points faster than ever - this week will see more points redeemed than any other week in our history.

Meanwhile this video news article on the BBC shows that some people still like going to the shops. "It's all about the shopping experience", claims a John Lews spokesman. But online shopping is now firmly established as an alternative to those for whom battling the madding crowds down the high street is not a positive user experience.

Online incentive solutions are to vouchers as e-commerce is to high street shopping. And the growth of web-based incentive schemes is set to follow the growth of online shopping.