The Vanity Fair Outlet store in Reading, Pa., opened at 12:01 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2008, for Black Friday sales.
(Bradley C Bower/AP Photo)More Photos
Online retailers are ramping up heavy-duty deals to turn skittish shoppers into buyers during the crucial Thanksgiving weekend and "Cyber Monday" — but even so, online sales are expected to be fairly flat after years of strong growth.
Free shipping is virtually a given, and many are offering financing options such as no payments for 90 days and deals like $10 off purchases of $50 or more, along with traditional discounts on products.
"Last year, people were spending a lot more money on gifts and products," says Jeff Wisot, vice president of marketing for online retailer Buy.com. "With the economic challenges arising this year, people are definitely spending less."
"Cyber Monday," a term coined by the trade group National Retail Federation in 2005 to describe the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, is the unofficial kickoff for the busy online retail season.
However, this year, consumer spending has dropped dramatically — down 1 percent in October, the largest amount since the 2001 terrorist attacks — as consumers grapple with a shaky economy, mounting job losses and a prolonged housing slump.
During the holidays, the trade group expects overall holiday spending will total about $470.4 billion, a 2.2 percent rise from a year ago and the slowest growth since 2002, and online retail is being hit along with brick-and-mortar stores. ComScore, a digital technology monitoring company, said Tuesday it expects online retail spending for November and December to be flat compared with the same two months in 2007. Last year's growth rate was 19 percent.
The expected slowdown in online growth is "dramatically different than what we've seen," says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group. "Consumers are not in a rush to shop."
In an effort to entice them, online retailers are offering a bounty of deals.
Wisot of Buy.com says his site is offering free shipping on most items, instant rebates and deals on TVs, GPS devices and other items.
