SmartBargains.com®, the leading online retailer for unbelievable finds for women at outrageously low prices, predicts Cyber Monday will cast a dark cloud over Black Friday, historically the biggest shopping day of the year for traditional brick & mortar retailers. Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, has quickly emerged as the new benchmark for holiday sales. Based on current sales trends, SmartBargains.com, a strong bellwether for the online shopping industry, anticipates a record-breaking Cyber Monday for 2006. It is anticipated that most of this increase in online shopping will come at the expense and diversion of spending at traditional physical world retailers.

"When you mix the holiday season with time constrained consumers and their addiction for the ultimate bargain, it creates the perfect storm," states Ben Fischman, SmartBargains.com CEO. "At SmartBargains.com, our indicators are predicting an explosive holiday season for online sales. Cyber Monday is expected to be the catalyst for this explosion."

According to the National Retail Federation, holiday store sales rose by only 5.7% in 2005 to $438.6 billion while online shopping rose 25%. A recent survey by Internet Retailer, the most well recognized brand in web-based retailing, finds web retailers expect 2006 to be another year of strong holiday sales. According to the survey, across the board, web retailers are expecting higher holiday sales this year, in many instances significantly higher. A third of retailers taking part in the survey expect their sales to grow by 25% or more over last year, with 11% expecting their sales to grow 50% or more.

SmartBargains.com's own research of women indicates the thrill of bargain hunting is not just in the hunt, but in the success of finding a great bargain. SmartBargains.com has given over 2,000,000 consumers unmatched bragging rights by ensuring their hit rate is higher than any other bargain shopping experience. Since 2000, SmartBargains.com has saved its customers over $1 billion. As such, SmartBargains.com is an accurate bellwether for the online shopping industry.