Retailers gear up for Cyber Monday

— -- Almost three-quarters of Internet retailers will offer special deals on Cyber Monday to kick off the holiday online shopping season, a National Retail Federation survey out today shows.

The survey of 116 retailers found 72% plan special offers. Only 43% featured similar offers two years ago, when the Monday after Thanksgiving was dubbed Cyber Monday.

"It began in 2005, and it caught some people by surprise," says Scott Silverman, executive director of NRF's Shop.org, which released the study. "Last year some online retailers were still on the sidelines, but I think all the doubts are gone."

Shoppers — often scouring the Internet from office computers during lunch breaks or when they're supposed to be working — are getting wise about looking for great deals.

Gifts.com, which provides information about online sales, says its Cyber Monday visitors more than tripled last year from 2005.

Next Monday, about a third of Internet stores will offer special e-mail campaigns and almost 30% will have one-day sales, NRF says. Many retailers also will launch free shipping for the holiday season that day.

Cyber Monday isn't the No. 1 online shopping day, but retailers still compete hard for customers.

"We're really pushing it this year because we saw the success of last year," says Pinny Gniwisch, founder of Ice.com, an online jeweler.

This year retailers also want to hook shoppers sooner because they are worried a weak economy may dampen sales.

"Retailers are so worried about people being very thrifty this Christmas and spending less than last year," says Daniel de Grandpre, editor of dealnews.com.

The site reports the best deals on computers, technology and gadgets.

Even though Cyber Monday is considered the start of online holiday shopping, some will also start pushing online sales on Thanksgiving Day, de Grandpre says.

Among the Cyber Monday offers:

•Ice.com says it will give away a pair of diamond stud earrings to every 100th customer that day. It is offering a 20% discount to anyone who goes to a special page it has created for Cyber Monday.