As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, American consumers have a few main things on their minds: Turkey, Pie, and Deals, Deals, Deals. Black Friday is just three days away and Cyber Monday just a short skip after that. The question remains: Are retailers prepared for the onslaught of bargain-hungry shoppers? Perhaps a heavier question is on the minds of retailers: Will consumers deliver the Black Friday results they need to get out of the red?

Analysts are wagering that 2008 Black Friday deals and doorbusters will entice shoppers to stand in line at Best Buy at 5 a.m and will have them clicking the “Buy Now” buttons on e-commerce sites; however, it just won’t happen to the same degree as it has in the past. One retail expert affirms that this year, it won’t just be the early bird who catches the best bargains. In fact, retailers have been extending discounts and promotions for the past few weeks — and will continue to do so until the inventory is depleted. The reason being that retailers ordered inventory a few months back when the economy was in bad shape — but not this bad. Stores will be frantic to get the stock off their hands, hence, offering deals that extend past the Black Friday “Early Bird Special.”

Web analytics solution provider Coremetrics has had its eye on the retail ball for several years now. Each Thanksgiving season, the company aggregates data from its hundreds of online retailers to relay Black Friday and Cyber Monday forecasts and results. In 2007, the company’s benchmark data showed a 20 percent boost in e-commerce sales for Black Friday. John Squire, chief strategy office at Coremetrics, says not surprisingly, this year will be lower. The Coremetrics predictions and results will be released Sunday night. Look out for an extended write-up on destinationCRM.com early next week. Squires says that a number of factors are pointing to a glum Black Friday:

• A shorter shopping season (Thanksgiving and Christmas are a week closer than last year) has put increased pressure on retailers to come out with promotions and to attract shoppers. 
• Coremetrics data of how much time consumers are spending online and what they are looking at suggests that browsing behavior is significantly lower than in previous years. At this point in time, online retail site traffic is only up by 10 percent. In previous years, that number was between 20 and 30 percent. Squires says it’s interesting to look at where Web surfers are spending time. He reveals that consumers are spending more time than ever on finance and banking sites. 
• Squires estimates that retailers have stocked up on items at lower price-points. Sure, this makes for happier customers, but will obviously affect a store’s performance. 

Sleepy shoppers might be happy to note that the deals will be sticking around. Senior Editor Tod Marks sums it up best in his morning interview with CBS. Here’s an excerpt from a CBS Black Friday news story: