Retailers Make Push for 'Cyber Monday'

BOSTON (TheStreet) -- "Cyber Monday," a term invented to note the spike of online shopping on the Monday after Thanksgiving, generates as much existential debate as Santa Claus. But this year, struggling retailers are depending on the made-up event to help boost sales.

The National Retail Federation says 87% of retailers will have a special Cyber Monday promotion, up from 83% last year, with 50% planning advertising campaigns and 43% offering special deals.

"Retailers are putting a large focus on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year," says NRF Vice President Ellen Davis. "Just because promotions started in July or September doesn't mean all the best deals are out there."

The history is a bit more abbreviated than St. Nick's, but falls under no less scrutiny. Back in 2005, when AOL still had more than 20 million subscribers and home bandwidth was about as sturdy as the copper wire providing it, the National Retail Federation's Shop.org noticed that sales online spiked the Monday after Black Friday. Deciding that sales resulted from workers using their companies' faster Internet connections to cash in on Black Friday deals they'd missed, the NRF dubbed the day "Cyber Monday," gave the day its own Web site and marketed it through the roof.

The National Retail Federation, meanwhile, is quick to defend its made-up marketing holiday. Traffic on CyberMonday.com went from an average 13,000 visitors in November to more than 1 million on the day in question.

Critics quickly pointed out that the busiest online shopping days are in December and that Amazon(AMZN) tends to abstain from "Cyber Monday" offers altogether. Does that, combined with improved Internet access, and early online discounts by Wal-Mart(WNT), Target(TGT) and others mean America is growing out of Cyber Monday?