Online shoppers hope for Black Friday

A new survey has revealed that 83.7 per cent of US online retailers expect to advertise a special promotion for Cyber Monday - the first Monday after Thanksgiving.

The popular Christmas shopping day will see 38.8 per cent of e-commerce sites offer a specific deal, while 32.7 per cent will engage in email marketing, 24.5 per cent will put on a one-day sale and 22.5 per cent will provide free shipping, according to the poll by Shopzilla for Shop.org.

Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving - will also see an increase in internet marketing among online retailers, with 28.6 per cent of e-commerce organisations expected to intensify their promotional efforts for this busy shopping day.

"As shoppers focus on price this holiday season, online retailers will be extremely competitive to offer the very best deals," remarked Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org.

Earlier this year, a study by Forrester Research for Shop.org revealed that 72 per cent of retailers believed the internet was the best platform on which to see out the economic downturn compared with offline channels, reports Bluhalo.