Online Retailers Primed for Cyber Monday

NEW YORK (TheStreet -- Black Friday may be in full swing, but online retailers are eagerly anticipating Cyber Monday, hopeful of a major revenue boost as consumers cautiously re-open their wallets.

Cyber Monday, the Monday following the Thanksgiving holiday, is the e-commerce equivalent of Black Friday, traditionally marking the start of the online holiday shopping season. Keen to gain any advantage in a cut-throat economy, however, retail's biggest names are stretching the concept of traditional shopping 'days'. Online retail giant Amazon(AMZN Quote), for example, launched its Black Friday deals page earlier this week, and will start offering its 'Cyber Monday' deals on Sunday.

Even brick-and-mortar companies are overhauling their online efforts, with J.C. Penney(JCP Quote) expanding its 'Cyber Monday' sale to two days, starting on Sunday. Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores(WMT Quote) is also offering an entire 'Cyber Week' of offers on its Walmart.com Web site.

Wal-Mart spokesman Ravi Jariwala told TheStreet that the 'Cyber Week' promotion encompasses more than 100 products, most of which will be revealed on Monday.

Amazon rival eBay(EBAY Quote) is also launching an online shopping offensive, recently announcing '12 Days of Deals' starting on Black Friday. The San Jose, Calif.-based eBay also unveiled a special 'deals' application for Apple(AAPL Quote)'s iPhone and iPod touch devices earlier this week, and expects that more than $500 million of eBay merchandise will be purchased via mobile devices by the end of this year.

Almost 90% of retailers will have a promotion for Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation's Shop.org division, up from 83.7% last year and 72.2% in 2007.