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Hope the weekend shopping spree hasn't put a hole in your pockets yet. For those of you who have their spirits shining, Cyber Monday is just the thing for you. So just sit back and flirt with technology a little more to grab what you most want for yourself and your dear ones. Nothing serves better than a fulfilling retail therapy.

Black Friday has traditionally been a rage, but what about the Cyber Mondays we ask? Does it still hold the power to influence the people who just haven't had enough? Can the sellers still rely on it as an effective mouthpiece revealing industrial trends?

To go back a little in the annals of time, shopping search engines started out as product and price comparison services from specific retailer websites.Viewed as giving unfair advantage to the lowest cost provider, it set the ball rolling for competitive online retailing.

The narrative today is not so stark however. While keeping the competition going, entrepreneurs place more currency on promoting oneself, rather than snubbing the opposition. The rule's simple folks... constructive progress will automatically draw in the curtains for your opponents.

Higher rating on search engines are afforded with peppy details on product inventory online as well as irresistible festive deals. Its no longer a tasking augury for Mamma's to pick up their shopping bags and walk all the way to that corner store or a mall when your kid cries for his favorite toy, or you simply have a craving.

Even if one isn't a bigtime cyber maestro, it is no big deal nowadays to kick-start a busy holiday season shopping, online. You are always a click away remember...

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In an age when competition is certainly fierce, shrouded in “Holier than thou” goodwill offers... when time is less, wants are more and mind you the prices and availability keep changing in a nick's time... the buyers and sellers have to be on their marks 24/7.

Statistics point that Cyber Mondays are fast ousting Black Friday as the single biggest shopping day of the year for online retailers. In 2011,it amounted to $1.25 billion, spear heading the previous year by 22%. Well, numbers haven't been fancy to comprehend ever, eh...and the story is not so simple.

Questions have been raised if there is a need for a Cyber Monday, with a rise in multi channel shopping and retailers beginning their operations much before the D-day...

To put it simply, both the sellers and buyers mean business. New trends such as social recommendations and easy access to retail sites via mobiles has changed the face of marketing.

While “Searching” for products through trustworthy and traditional sites is still the first option, newer trends such social bookmarking sites like Pinterest, are helping retailers garner sufficient traffic due to its social visibility. The buzz is that 4 in every 5 smartphone users accessed deals through their mobiles this year.

In a nutshell, Cyber Mondays are but an extension of the hottest Retail Week. It sure has to deal with its nemesis but it'll never become obsolete.

To quote a chief industry analyst,