Cyber Monday shoppers turned out in force, driven by free shipping and other deals, amid huge jumps in mobile shopping — or "couch commerce," as experts dub it.

In this transformation process, context is key: Computer users are sitting right in front of their screen, highly focused on their task (finding the best deals), while tablet users are relaxing on the couch, enjoying nice content (pictures, videos, stories). We can describe this context as couch-browsing, and by extension describe the act of browsing a catalogue or shopping through a tablet app as couch-commerce.

QVC (think Quality, Value and Convenience), the home-shopping channel,…and the very concept of shopping by television, quickly are emerging as one of the surprising cash cows of the '90s.