The line between Black Friday and Cyber Monday has become increasingly blurred over the years, leaving many of us asking: What is Cyber Monday?
Read on to learn all you need to know about Cyber Monday, including what it is, how it differs from Black Friday and whether you can expect to bag a deal.
What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is an online shopping event that directly follows Black Friday.
Traditionally, Black Friday took place the Friday after Thanksgiving and marked the day shops in the US (and later, in the UK and other countries) would discount items for one day in the lead-up to Christmas. This meant that shoppers would rush to these locations in a frenzy, stampeding through aisles and queuing around the block to catch that year’s hottest deals.
Cyber Monday, in turn, marked the Monday that followed the in-person chaos. In Cyber Monday’s case, the sales took place online, giving online retailers a chance to lure customers in with a good discount and encourage more people to adapt to online shopping when the term first began gaining traction back in 2005.
When is Cyber Monday in the UK?
Cyber Monday always takes place on the following Monday after Black Friday, so in 2025 it’ll be on Monday December 1st.
What happens on Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is essentially an extension of Black Friday and sees retailers offering huge discounts across their respective ranges. Such retailers include the likes of Amazon, and John Lewis, AO and Currys in the UK alongside Walmart, Target and Best Buy in the US.
What’s the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
The key difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is that the former tends to start earlier than its official date. Essentially, while Black Friday is technically on November 28th, in reality the sales can start as much as a whole month earlier.
Cyber Monday, on the other hand, is usually a one-day sale that typically ends by midnight on Tuesday. While we’ve learned over the years that not all retailers stick to this rule of thumb, generally speaking Cyber Monday is likened to Amazon’s Lightning deals where price drops are live for a limited period of time.
For a more in-depth look, we’ve broken down the key differences between the two shopping events in our dedicated Black Friday vs Cyber Monday guide.
Do you really get deals on Cyber Monday?
Yes, you really can get decent deals on Cyber Monday. However, whether you should wait for Cyber Monday or not is debatable.
We’d advise that if you’ve found a deal on a hot-ticket or rarely discounted item such as the PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch 2 prior to Cyber Monday, then we’d recommend snapping it up while it’s still live. This is because it’s pretty unlikely that a new or rarely discounted item will see much more of a price drop, and it’s more likely that either stock will run out or the retailer will remove the deal entirely.
In fact, we would advise that you keep in mind that all deals are subject to changing, ending or running out of stock entirely before Cyber Monday even hits. With this in mind, we’d always advise against waiting for Cyber Monday for a deal that you genuinely really would like to buy.
When is Cyber Monday for Amazon?
Cyber Monday will take place on Monday 1st December and will mark the final day of Amazon’s Black Friday event.
