Cyber Monday Site Gets Jump On Holiday ShoppingCyber Monday Site Gets Jump On Holiday Shopping

As online retailers gear up for early holiday sales this year, the National Retail Federation's online division has overhauled its site in hopes of drawing more shoppers.

Shop.org redesigned its shopping Web site, CyberMonday.com, with special promotions, free shipping, and discounts--two weeks before the official kick-off of the holiday shopping season. The site features more than 600 retailers and more than 20 million products.

The site now offers a comparison search engine that checks every merchant selling through the site to list the best deals on specific products. Users can narrow their searches by category, brand, price, and color. It also offers subscribers e-mail alerts for discounts, "Deal of the Hour" promotions, a new green products category, a top five list of the best online deals, and pages listing retailers with free shipping and gift cards.

The NRF expects gift cards to be popular this year with many Americans listing them as their top preference for receiving gifts and givers planning to make more practical selections than in years past.

Despite a poor economic climate, Mall Networks, which runs the site, has increased its capacity for this year's traffic. More than 1.5 million people visited the site during the 2007 holiday shopping season, Mall Networks reported. That's three times the number of visitors recorded in 2006, when the site first launched.

Shop.org donates its Web site proceeds to the Ray M. Greenly Scholarship Fund in memory of former Shop.org VP Ray Greenly. So far the site has raised over $400,000 for the fund, which helps students who are seeking careers in e-commerce.