best cyber monday deals

You're likely to save more than gas this year by skipping the Black Friday retail rush. Shop today and chances are you'll find some serious scores online.

Bergdorf Goodman and Ron Herman are among the high-end retailers offering discounts; at Berdgorf Goodman, you'll receive 65 percent off men's fall apparel, including Giorgio Armani sport coats and Ermenegildo ties. Ron Herman is offering online shoppers 30 percent off fall women's wear.

Other online retailers are hoping to seduce shoppers with free shipping. Both Sephora.com and LLBean.com will pay shipping charges on any purchases starting Nov. 26.

Though online outfits like these debut their promotions on Cyber Monday, most will keep them in place throughout the holiday season.

That's because, where once online retailers saw an increase in traffic from Web users logging on during their lunch hours on the Monday after Thanksgiving, today, with broadband Internet now commonplace in most homes, more shoppers surf the Web at all hours, every day.

"We definitely see a ton of activity at our online retailers after Thanksgiving," says Kelly O'Neill, a product marketing director for Art Technology Group, an e-commerce software provider whose platform is used by Sephora, Neiman Marcus and Louis Vuitton. "But as the shopping patterns of consumers shift from work to the home, Cyber Monday sales aren't quite as strong as they were a couple of years back."

But that hasn't stopped retailers from marking down seasonal goods.

"Sales, in one word, work," says Thomas Harpointner, CEO of AIS Media, an e-business solutions provider. "Internet coupons, promotion codes and guaranteed shipping before the holidays will attract people. The Web has become a lot more user-friendly, and having the product delivered to your front door is incentive enough for many."

Major Money Off

Neiman Marcus is hoping to cash in on that sentiment. The store will further reduce already discounted items come today. Log on and you'll see 50 percent to 60 percent off the original price on clothing by designers such as Anne Klein and 3.1 Phillip Lim. And women's work-wear mainstay Ann Taylor will offer free shipping on all online orders - no minimum purchase - on Monday.

Those with gadget lovers on their lists will want to go to Buy.com. The discount online retailer is offering 10 percent off digital cameras, like Cannon's Powershot G9 12 Megapixel (down from $499.99 to $450) and laptops, including Toshiba Satellitte L45-S7419 (from $640 to $600).

But it's not just the big guns offering specials today. Smaller, online-only retailers are advertising discounts as well - luxury stationary shop Red Stamp is knocking 10 percent off everything The biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, has come and gone―thank God. Welcome to Cyber Monday! Today's the day when the Web is swimming with post-weekend deals that you can browse from your home or work PC without dealing with crowded stores, endless checkout lines, and the horror of finding an empty shelf.

SLIDESHOW (10)

Slideshow | All Shots

Clicking from retailer to retailer today, though, probably isn't what you want to do. And keeping tabs on ever-changing prices, discount codes, and more may be a bit too much to keep on your plate. Luckily, we found 10 sites that do the comparison-shopping legwork for you, aggregating the best deals from across the Web into neat packages to ease your cost-conscious mind.

On the list are our favorite shopping bots that search hundreds of retailers and present you with a complete rundown of the most competitive prices and stores. They also offer coupon and discount-code databases, bargain-hunting blogs, and other handy tools, all with one simple purpose: to save you some cash.

Here are a couple of the sites in our Top Shopping Sites for Cyber Monday:

Dealio

www.dealio.com

This supreme shopping bot adds eBay listings to its price-comparison pages, posts user-submitted and ranked deals, and offers desktop widgets and a nifty toolbar that shows a pop-up price comparison when you browse product pages on major shopping sites.

Price Protectr
priceprotectr.com
Many sites have price-protection policies, but who has the energy to keep track of price changes when it comes to online purchases? Telling Price Protectr what you paid on one of 50-plus supported sites will get you e-mail alerts if the price drops, and let you know how to claim your refund.

Now check out the other sites featured in our Web shopping slide show, including FatWallet, Shopzilla, Slickdeals