Online shopping deals on the rise

Staff report

youngstown

For those wishing to avoid waiting in lines, shopping in crowded stores and being up all night tonight, another shopping option awaits.

A growing number of companies are featuring special deals online, according to the National Retail Federation. The site CyberMonday.com will begin to announce Black Friday deals of the hour. Consumers may have to wait a couple of additional days to get their deals, however. Though many companies are starting their online sales Friday, a number of companies will begin their sales on the growing sales day of Cyber Monday.

Retailers participating in the CyberMonday.com effort include Sears.com, Kohl’s, Macys.com, Sephora.com, drugstore.com, eBags.com and Barnes & Noble.com. Offers will include free shipping specials, dollars off and free gifts with purchase. Retailers also will use CyberMonday.com to promote their Cyber Monday Deal of the Hour.

The deals will be announced starting Sunday.

Groups that project online retail sales are expecting sizable increases in sales, but projections vary.

Online revenue for the retail sector could climb 18 percent to $2 billion Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year in the U.S., according to new data from Adobe Systems Inc.

Adobe’s Digital Index 2012 Online Shopping Forecast analyzed more than 150 billion website visits over the past six years to forecast sales-growth figures and online shopping spikes for the upcoming holiday season in the U.S. and Europe. It also predicts strong purchasing activity from mobile devices, with those items representing 21 percent of total online sales this holiday, more than double last year’s figure.

On the lower end of projections, Shop.org is projecting sales from online shopping to increase this holiday season by 12 percent.

Further illustrating the anticipated increase in online shopping, FedEx is expecting a 13 percent increase in shipments this holiday season over last year, according to Shop.org.