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Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. The term “Cyber Monday” was created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online. The term made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled, “Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year”.

For those who consistently look for deals online in order to take advantage of national retailer specials and often to avoid sales tax from local retailers, Cyber Monday is anticipated and waited for in the same way brick and mortar store shoppers wait for Black Friday.

However, this year may be different for those who live in states that now demand retailers collect sales tax, where in past years these states did not. Previously, Pennsylvania did not require sales tax to be applied if the retailer had no a brick and mortar presence in the state. Now, Pennsylvania requires tax to be collected from all retail sales, including those made online. Where consumers once could make purchases without a sales tax being applied, it may be added to this year’s purchases if the retailer follows the law enacted in Pennsylvania.

Even though sales tax may be applied this year deals from online purchases are often still better than those found in the stores.

This year, additional savings may be in the form of shipping charges to help offset any sales tax applied.

Many retailers are offering free shipping with orders over a certain amount, such as Amazon.com that will ship orders totaling $35 or more at no charge (they raised it from $25 earlier this year).

One way to avoid the Amazon shipping charge is by joining a 30-day Free Trial of Amazon Prime, which not only provides free shipping, but speeds the shipping time to a 2-day delivery of items.

Others are offering reduced shipping costs, such as eBay’s new shipping service, eBay Now.

Adding some confusion this holiday shopping season is some merchants trying to extend the shopping days, due to Thanksgiving having landed so late in November.

This holiday shopping season will be the shortest in at least a decade, forcing e-commerce companies, including Amazon.com and eBay, to think up new tactics to grab as much festive spending as possible.

There are 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, compared to 32 last year. That presents risks and opportunities for online retailers and marketplaces.

Fewer days may mean less spending overall, crimping revenue and sparking more intense price wars that cut into profits. But the shorter season may also encourage more online shopping earlier as consumers try to be more efficient.

Cyber Monday, the first work day after the Thanksgiving weekend, will be the busiest online shopping day in history when sales could top $2 billion. A quarter of all holiday shopping will happen late this season, Wall Street forecasters predict.

There are four main responses to the shorter holiday shopping season this year; Start promotions earlier, make discounts deeper, expose offers to more people and focus sales on Thanksgiving itself.

Amazon, the world’s largest Internet retailer, said recently that its Amazon Black Friday Deals will start a day earlier this year, beginning Nov. 24. New promotions will hit the company’s website as often as every ten minutes from that date through the weekend following Black Friday.

Walmart.com kicks off a Cyber Week of online promotions two days early on Nov. 30 this year. The retailer will have 200 online specials every day through Dec. 6. The world’s largest retailer said it will offer mobile app customers, Facebook fans and email subscribers early access to up to 20 of its best Cyber Monday deals.

Walmart also lowered its free shipping minimum this holiday season to $35 from $50. That matches Amazon’s free shipping minimum.