Cyber Monday Dates and Details 2023: What You Need to Know

Cyber Monday is an annual shopping day that occurs on the Monday after Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

Cyber Monday will be on November 27, 2023.

Here’s some info on Cyber Monday dates, history, impact, and what you should know as a shopper or as a marketer.

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When Is Cyber Monday? (Cyber Monday Dates for the Next 10 Years)

Cyber Monday is always on the Monday after Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

Since the date of the US’s Thanksgiving holiday is different every year, this means that the date for Cyber Monday is different every year as well.

Thanksgiving Day falls on the fourth Thursday of November, so Cyber Monday always falls on either the fourth or fifth Monday of November, or the first Monday in December.

Here are the Cyber Monday dates for the next 10 years:

What Is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday Explanation and History

Cyber Monday is a national commercial event in which businesses offer significant discounts on online products and services.

Although similar to (and in some ways an extension of) Black Friday, Cyber Monday focuses on online transactions rather than physical goods.

The observance of Cyber Monday allows businesses to extend the “rush” of Black Friday and allows consumers to take advantage of discounted products in time to get Christmas shopping done.

According to one report, at a time when the population by and large did not have high speed internet at home, “The name Cyber Monday grew out of the observation that millions of otherwise productive working Americans, fresh off a Thanksgiving weekend of window shopping, were returning to high-speed Internet connections at work Monday and buying what they liked.”

While initially an American phenomenon, businesses in several other countries have picked up on the trend and have incorporated it into their marketing.

Cyber Monday and Black Friday

Cyber Monday and Black Friday are closely connected, with Black Friday being the Friday after Thanksgiving Day in the US and Cyber Monday being the subsequent Monday just a few days later.

In fact, the two key commercial events are sometimes tied together in the term BFCM (Black Friday / Cyber Monday). And in recent years, these “BFCM” deals are getting rolled out sooner in the year, before culminating in the actual dates of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The key differences between the two events include the day of the week (Friday vs. Monday), as well as the emphasis. While Black Friday traditionally focused on in-person retail sales, it has now transitioned to be more all-encompassing of both in-person and online sales.

Cyber Monday, on the other hand, has generally retained a focus on online purchases.

How Big Is Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday has become one of the most significant days of the year for business sales.

USA Today reported that last year, Americans spent $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday shopping, making it the biggest shopping day of all time by one report.

For consumers, this means you may be able to get some of the best discounts.

For businesses, this means you need to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the opportunity that Cyber Monday provides.

Cyber Monday Dates for Shopping, Content, and Marketing

Cyber Monday Dates for Shopping (2023)

• October 1st – start keeping an eye out for deals
• November 1st – deals may start picking up
• November 23rd – Black Friday Deals begin
• November 24th – Black Friday
• November 27th – Cyber Monday

Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals can start as early as October, so you can start keeping an eye out for deals early.

If you see a good deal on a popular item, it may be best to get it sooner rather than later rather than holding out for an even better deal, because it may sell out before you even have a chance to get to the actual dates of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Companies like Amazon may drop deals throughout November leading up to the big days. Then, of course, the “proper” deals often begin on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 23rd this year), with Black Friday the day after (Nov. 24th), and Cyber Monday after the weekend (Nov. 27th).

Cyber Monday Dates for Content (2023)

• August 21st – start publishing new content (if applicable)
• September 21st – start updating old content
• November 1st – start focusing on engagement content (too late for organic SEO)

For businesses, you’ll want to start getting Cyber Monday and Black Friday content out early on in the year.

With organic SEO, it can take months for articles to pick up steam, so if you’re creating new content and you want organic traffic, it’s best to publish at least a couple of months in advance.

(In reality, it may take even longer for your content to gain any traction, so you may not see much organic traffic until the subsequent year.)

However, Ahrefs points out that though holidays only come once a year, they are essentially evergreen precisely because they do come once a year. So that means instead of publishing fresh new content each year, in many cases you can update old content and retain the SEO juice you’ve already built up.

Once November comes, you won’t gain organic SEO juice in time for the events, so your content strategy at that point can become focused primarily on engagement.

Cyber Monday Dates for Marketing (2023)

• October 1st – consider starting to trickle out pre-BFCM deals (promote weekly via social, SMS, email, etc.)
• November 1st – start ramping up pre-BFCM deals (promote weekly or twice weekly via social, SMS, email, etc.)
• November 23rd – official Black Friday deals begin (you may choose to wait until Black Friday proper)
• November 24th – Black Friday
• November 27th – official Cyber Monday deals begin

For broad marketing, you can actually start trickling out deals as early as October in anticipation for BFCM (Black Friday / Cyber Monday). Don’t go overboard with this, but you could promote perhaps one deal a week or every other week to prep for the BFCM season.

Then starting in November, you can pick it up and start pushing out more preliminary deals building anticipation for the actual events on Black Friday (which may actually begin on Thanksgiving Day for some businesses) and Cyber Monday.

Be Ready for Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday comes once a year, and you want to be ready when it comes. If you're a business marketer, one way to get ready is to make sure you have an SMS plan in place. Try a free SMS platform trial account here.