With holiday season now upon us, both brick-and-mortar and click-and-mortar retailers are preparing for what they hope will be the busiest shopping days of the year,

The Friday after Thanksgiving has been branded Black Friday while the Monday after Turkey Day has been dubbed  Cyber Monday. Still, many Internet e-tailers say the season’s top spending days could come much later, between Dec. 5 and Dec. 15.

Due to this year’s roller-coaster economic environment, a longer online holiday promotion period is also expected in order for retailers to try and win every last dollar they can from consumers. Macy’s had already began aggressive advertising this year in mid-November.

We’ve polled some of the Web’s top sites for bargain coupons, sweet as peppermint deals and smart savings strategies to help you make the most of your special shopping days starting with Amazon’s Cyber Monday coupons.

The Fathers of Invention! Mike Riddle came up with the idea for Black-Friday.net after waiting in line outside a Best Buy for hours in 2005 to get a television he saw in a Black Friday circular, only to be told once inside that the television had sold out.  Jon Vincent founded BlackFriday.info in 2005 after demands poured in for information on Black Friday sales at an online coupon site he also runs.

Take A Sneak Preview. If you are interested in checking out a scanned image of the Toys R Us Black Friday sales ad, feel free to click on this link to take a look at them. In order to take advantage of the Black Friday sales rush, Toys R Us is advertising a midnight opening for their Black Friday sales, which will take place at most of the Toys R Us stores starting at midnight on the night of Thanksgiving.

Cyber-Monday sales and coupons are also available to help you plan your online shopping list.  Another “hit list” for letting your computer mouse do the browsing and the buying is this Website.

When shopping online, practice Internet safety. Visit a store’s website at the direct address online.  Type out the URL yourself. Don’t click on links in emails, even if you think the email comes from a mailing list you signed up for.

Never send personal financial information via email such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or other sensitive data including logins and passwords. And when you are done with a transaction, completely sign out of your account.

If you can’t handle the thought of credit card increases, or if you can’t afford to pay the credit card in full, use cash.  Some people claim that you’ll spend less money when you use real dollars in place of  plastic.

According to Google Research, some 69% of shoppers plan to purchase gift cards this year.  Those can all be found online.

And don’t forget about the great deals you will find starting AFTER the holidays, on December 26th!

Got a shopping tip to share? Just jingle our bell!

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