[dropcap]S[/dropcap]teve Di Pietro has coined yet another ecommerce-related phrase: Black Cyber Weekend.

Traditionally, the Friday after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, the day that kicks off the Christmas Holiday shopping season for brick-and-mortar retail stores. In more recent times, the phrase Cyber Monday was created for the Monday following Thanksgiving as a way to encourage online shopping. Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday are days to which shoppers look forward because of the steep discounts offered by retailers, both offline and online. The result is an incredible amount of sales volume for stores, and, fantastic savings for consumers.

Originally, the steep discounts offered to consumers by both groups – retail and ecommerce stores – were valid only on those particular days, Black Friday or Cyber Monday. The deals evolved more recently and now stretch to the point where they are now valid starting on Thanksgiving Day (does anyone respect holidays and family time anymore?) and run through the following Monday, blurring the line between Black Friday – on Friday only – and Cyber Monday – occurring on that Monday only.

During a conference call to discuss a sales event covering that period of time, Thanksgiving Day through the following Monday 2013, for client LaptopBatteryExpress.com, it occurred to Mr. Di Pietro’s that neither phrase effectively communicated to the consumer the thought that the sales event would be valid for the entire five days. Why would a Black Friday sale be valid on days other than a Friday? Ditto Cyber Monday.

At one point in the conversation, the phrase Black Cyber Weekend popped out of the mouth of Mr. Di Pietro. The intention was to better communicate to the consumer the idea that the sales event the two were planning for LaptopBatteryExpress.com would cover the entire period, not simply one particular day or the other.

Thus, the term Black Cyber Weekend was born.

(Not meant to be a big deal; just wanted to get it on the record.)