ANDERSON — Black Friday brought out shoppers in full force, but the rush didn’t end on the day after Thanksgiving.
Businesses typically look forward to the Monday after Thanksgiving as Cyber Monday, when consumers return to work for the first time after the holiday and use their offices’ faster Internet connections to order the gifts they can’t get in stores.
Local businesses saw mixed results from the Cyber Monday phenomenon.
“A few years ago Cyber Monday didn’t mean anything to us,” said Randy Good, owner of Anderson’s Good’s Candy Shop.
But this year, Good’s saw about a 20 percent increase in online sales during Cyber Monday, in part because it coincided with the first day of December.
“The first Monday in December is a doozy,” Good said. “Everybody wakes up and sees it’s December and says, ‘I’ve got to get candy to California!’”
Good said he noticed promotions like free shipping and discounts on many Web sites Monday, all in an effort to encourage the Cyber Monday crowd.
This year was the first Cyber Monday for Tia Agnew’s fine winery in Elwood. Agnew and her husband own New Day Meadery, which makes an assortment of wines from honey. The business is not new, but its online presence is.
“We’re really trying to give a big incentive for taking the chance and ordering online,” Agnew said. “For many small entrepreneurial businesses, we’re going to make or break based on our performance online. It’s becoming a much more nimble environment.”
New Day’s online ordering capabilities were launched in the summer, but Agnew and her husband haven’t pushed the option until this holiday season, promoting the site through the business’s e-mail list.
“We literally just started and we’re starting to get some orders coming in,” said Agnew, who already ships the wine to 21 states.
Nancy Moneyhun, co-owner of Moneyhun’s Fine Gifts in Anderson, said the store didn’t see an increase in online shoppers Monday because the Internet isn’t a large part of her business.
“It’s certainly been consistent today as in the past,” Moneyhun said Monday. “We’ve had lots of calls and lots of customers. We’ve been very busy, but not really with any online things.”
