SmallBusinessNewz

Well as you're probably well aware (hopefully at least), Black Friday is approaching. It's this week. That's the day when shoppers everywhere scramble through town in search of the best deals, and many stores give them those deals creating a chaos-sphere of savings.

I don't expect Black Friday to be downplayed much this year given everyone's thirst for savings in this economy, but data from Shopzilla indicates that people are far more excited about Cyber Monday (next Monday), which is basically the online equivalent of Black Friday. This is the day where online shopping reigns supreme, and consumers are on the hunt for the best possible deals via eCommerce.

About 42% of consumers think of Cyber Monday as an online memory-jogger to kick-start their holiday shopping plans, and 8 out of 10 will be on the look-out for discounts, 69% will be searching for free shipping, 53% will scour the web for one-day promotions and 32% will keep their eyes open for buy-one-get-one-free promotions, according to Shopzilla.

"Cyber Monday has become so famous for its good deals that many consumers prefer waiting until Monday to shop online rather than heading out to the stores for the traditional Black Friday deals," says Shopzilla. "Even the browsers - not shoppers - are using Cyber Monday to strategically prowl the web for promotions and savings."

This is a good reason as to why Cyber Monday is important to your business even if you do not see direct sales from it. It's a chance for you to get your brand noticed, and stay in the mind of shoppers that may not be ready to buy from you, but may be back in the future. Give them a reason to come back.

"Cyber Monday has become synonymous with deals in the consumer's mind because, of the 43% of consumers who said they shopped last Cyber Monday, 63% reported finding great deals," says Shopzilla. "Not surprisingly, in this tough economy, they are on the hunt again."

So get ready. As I talked about the other day, Yahoo offered a few tips for online businesses to utilize during the holiday shopping monsoon:

1. Call out any special holiday deals
2. Highlight lower-priced items when possible
3. If you offer free shipping, b sure to include that in your ad copy
4. Stress the ease and convenience that online shopping offers

Get plenty more online advertising tips here. Mike Sachoff talks about some more of Shopzilla's survey stats about Cyber Monday at WebProNews.