The shoppers on Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season in America, which falls on November 27th this year, are notoriously aggressive.Some even start queuing outside stores before dawn to be the first to lay their hands on heavily discounted merchandise. Last year berserk bargain-hunters in the suburbs of New York City trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death. Despite the frenzy at many stores, however, the recession appears to have accelerated the pace at whictr shoppers are abandoning bricks and mortar in favour of online retailers——e-tailers, in the jargon.E-commerce holds particular appeal in straitened times as it enables people to compare prices across retailers quickly and easily. Online-only shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay, two e-commerce giants, have thrived in the downturn. The range of items available online is also growing. Amazon has started selling groceries. The shift in spending to the internet is good news for companies like P&G that lack retail outlets of their own. But it is<br> a big concern for brick-and-mortar retailers, whose prices are often higher than those of e-taUers, since they must bear the extra expense of running stores. @Happily, however, conventional retailers are in a better position to fight back than last year, when overstocking forced them to resort to ruinous discounting. Inventories are about 15% lower this year. Some big retailers, such as Saks and Target, have recently reported rising revenues and margins. The most obvious response to the growth of e-tailing is for conventional retailers to redouble their own efforts online.
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