Some of Australian retailers will reduce their online prices for 24 hours on Nov 20 in a sales promotion called Click Frenzy. The promo is patterned after the U.S.'s Cyber Monday shopping holiday.

The promo aims to boost weak sales across Australia before Christmas and at the same time to ride on the growing consumer preference to shop online rather than buy at bricks-and-mortar stores.

Grant Arnott of Power Retail, who organised Click Tuesday, said the sales promo could be similar to Boxing Day sales but on digital steroids.

Cyber Monday was launched in 2006 with over 700 U.S. retailers participating. Held on the Monday after Thanksgiving Day, it attracts 10 million shoppers. In the 2011 version of Cyber Monday, Americans shopped $1.25 billion worth of goods in just 24 hours.

Mr Arnott said he expects 200 retailers to participate in Click Frenzy and for sales to go up by millions of dollars.

While the National Retail Association supported the idea of Click Frenz, Trevor Evans, executive director of the association, warned the online retailers could take away pre-Christmas sales from bricks-and-mortar stores.

In the U.S., ahead of Cyber Monday, which is also preceded by Black Friday sales, the National Retail Federation is forecasting a 4.1 per cent sales growth nationwide based on current trends. Holiday sales account for about 40 per cent of their annual sales.

Among the indicators of strong sales in the U.S. are Standard & Poor's Supercomposite Retailing Index which rose 23.1 per cent for 2012 and household purchases which went up 1.9 per cent annually for the September quarter.

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