• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, November 30, 2009

While Black Friday's sales numbers may have been disappointing, it looks like Cyber Monday may give retailers a reason to hoist an eggnog. And with a record 96.5 million expected to shop today, retailers are jumping through ether-hoops to make sure they get their share.

The National Retail Federation estimates that 87.1% of retailers are running CyberMonday promotions -- up from 83.7% last year. The poll, conducted by the NRF's shop.org division, projects that specific deals will be the most popular promotions (42.9%), followed by one-day sales (32.9%), and free shipping on all purchases (15.7%). And 50% say they planned to promote them through a special Cyber Monday email.

JCPenney, for example, declared its Sunday/Monday sale the biggest in its history -- with special offers on more than 30,000 items, including many "screenbusters" priced below $10. Amazon was offering "Guitar Hero" at 50% off. Sears offered 40% off Fisher-Price Trio toys, plus an extra 25% off shoes for the family. And Target was hawking a $249 Garmin Nuvi for just $187.

So far, all those deals seem to be giving online spending a much-needed holiday goose. ComScore reports that online spending on Black Friday jumped 11% to $595 million.

By midday Monday, Coremetrics said online sales had jumped 16%, compared to 2008's CyberMonday, with much of the buying ramping up around 8:30 a.m. EST. And CNN was reporting a 39% surge in online traffic to U.S. shopping sites compared to last year, with more than 4.3 million visitors per minute.

"In general, Cyber Monday week is very big for Web retailers, and the momentum in the weeks leading up to today have been strong," Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst who follows eBusiness for Forrester Research, tells Marketing Daily. "It should surprise no one when the numbers are strong this week, too. Retailers are doing their best to provide some compelling deals."

Earlier this month, Forrester predicted that online retail sales in the U.S. would reach $44.7 billion this holiday season, an 8% increase over last year. In 2008, online holiday retail sales grew just 5%.

"Despite the lingering effects of the recession, the online space remains the retail industry's growth engine," Mulpuru writes in her report. "What's different this holiday from past years is that online retailers will manage to the bottom line, which will change some of the tactics they have employed in the past."