What work? 60 million shop online today

Washington—If Santa only knew. Instead of knocking out items on their work to-do lists, employees may well be holiday shopping at their desks today, a new survey suggests.With Black Friday now over, the holiday shopping frenzy has moved online with "Cyber Monday" expected to draw 60.7 million consumers shopping from home or work today, according to a Shop.org survey conducted this weekend by Big Research.

Today, expected to be one of the biggest online shopping days of the year, starts the holiday season in earnest for online retailers. "While traditional retailers used Black Friday promotions to pack the stores this weekend, online retailers are using Cyber Monday to debut holiday merchandise and offer virtual door-busters," said Scott Silverman, Shop.org executive director, in a press release issued on Monday.

"On Cyber Monday, consumers will find specials ranging from percentages off entire Web sites to specific savings on big-ticket items."Free shipping is also expected to be a big draw, with 83 percent of online retailers planning to offer some kind of free-shipping promotion during the holiday season, according to the Shop.org/Shopzilla eHoliday Mood Study.Shop.org's own Web site, Cybermonday.com, has already received tens of thousands of visitors, the group says.

The site showcases more than 400 retailers featuring special promotions to encourage shoppers to point and click their way through the holiday shopping season. Coincidentally, a recent Big Research survey also found that 61 million people plan to shop online from work during the holiday season. "Shoppers who fought the crowds at the mall all weekend will find a welcome reprieve online on Cyber Monday," said Phil Rist, vice president of strategy for Big Research.

"Consumers who couldn't find what they were looking for in the stores will be flooding Web sites on Cyber Monday to shop for holiday gifts, research products and compare prices."Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, is the network for online retailers with 600 members, including the 10 largest U.S. retailers and 70 percent of the top online retailers as ranked by Internet Retailer.