http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2010/11/28/2010-11-28_cyber_monday_deals_2010_cybermondaycom_tells_you_where_the_deals_are_at.html
Holiday shopping: Tips to find the best deals on Cyber Monday 2010
LORE CROGHAN
Dust off your keyboards and wipe off your mouse - it's Cyber Monday.
A record 106.9 million Americans are expected to shop on the Internet Monday, up from an estimated 96.5 million last year, a survey for Shop.org said.
The Monday after Thanksgiving is a crucial day for merchants trying to boost their bottom lines. Tactics include one-day and one-hour-only deals, website-wide percentage markdowns and free shipping for even minimal purchases.
"Every single year, Cyber Monday blows us away with how much bigger it is than the year before," said Fiona Dias of GSI Commerce, which runs more than 100 retailers' websites.
This year, nearly nine in 10 retailers nationwide are offering special deals to get a piece of the action, according to another survey for Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation. In 2007, seven in 10 retailers offered special promotions.
Tips and resources for Cyber Monday shopping:
- cybermonday.com: More than 700 retailers offer deals on this website. Big players like Barnes & Noble and Home Depot offer one-hour-only promotions.
- retailmenot.com: Coupons are available from thousands of retailers for additional discounts.
- pricegrabber.com: A comparison site to find the best prices on products from more than 11,000 merchants.
- Early bird go-getters that want your business like sears.com, macys.com and bestbuy.com started Sunday.
- There’s an app for that: Downloads like FatWallet’s Black Friday app are supposed to work on Cyber Monday as well.
The day has been called Cyber Monday since 2005, when Web traffic trackers noticed millions of shoppers hitting online sites at work after Thanksgiving weekend. This year, nearly 90% will do Cyber Monday Santa duty at home, though. And more than 7 million shoppers will use mobile devices for purchases, nearly double the number of 2009.
Rosa Amaya, 46, of Seaford, L.I., plans to do her Cyber Monday shopping after she gets home from work at a state Labor Department office, where she's a secretary. She'd never shop in the office.
"I wouldn't want to risk my job," she said Sunday outside Macy's Herald Square.
She'll look for Cyber Monday deals on toys for two nieces and four nephews and video games for her teenage son.
Retailers' hopes for a lucrative Cyber Monday were bolstered by news of online sales of $648 million on Black Friday - an increase of 9% over last year, according to tracking service comScore.
Jamie Dunbar, a lobbyist visiting New York City from Wilbraham, Mass., shopped city stores over the weekend for relatives other than immediate family.
"It takes more browsing to find what they might want," said Dunbar, 33, who was outside Macy's Sunday.
He'll do Cyber Monday shopping for his parents, sister, wife and their two small kids. He'll search his wife's favorite retailers' sites, like Coach, J. Crew and L.L. Bean, and hit the Toys "R" Us site for his kids.
Dunbar does 60% to 70% of his Christmas buying online, so Cyber Monday is important to him. But he vowed not to get up early for predawn deals.
"The reason I shop online is to avoid 'Midnight Madness,'" he said. "If I lose a percentage of a deal, I'm not going to lose sleep over it."
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