Thanksgiving has become known to shoppers as one of the best days to buy stuff online, but like most conventional wisdom about shopping it's actually not the best day to buy online.

According to research done by Yahoo, online retailers saw a 147% increase in purchases on Black Friday compared to other days in November, more than double the increase on Cyber Monday.

This may be news to most shoppers since Cyber Monday is hyped as the best day to buy stuff online but according to Dan de Grandpre, CEO of Dealnews.com, "It's been that way for years. Every year as far back as I recall, traffic to dealnews.com was higher on Black Friday than Cyber Monday." explaining that, "After all, that makes sense, since Cyber Monday is a recently invented "Hallmark holiday": an event made-up by retailers and industry groups to drive online sales."

According to de Grandpre, there's a simple reason why shoppers buy more on Black Friday; "the deals are better." The term Cyber Monday was coined to explain the rise in sales of online items as shoppers returned to offices to get the items they missed on Black Friday but with more retailers starting sales early Cyber Monday is no longer a day to get the items you missed.

For the past several years major retailers have embraced our desire to shop earlier by offering the same doorbuster deals that draw crowds to the store, online. De Grandpre estimates that "we'll see 80-90% of the tech doorbusters available online this year, with a lower percentage of apparel and other soft goods." For shoppers this means you can enjoy all of the savings without having to worry about Black Friday safety and security.
So when should you start shopping online to get the best deals this year? While the best deals will still be on Black Friday; you may want to bring a netbook with you to Thanksgiving dinner! Dan tells us that Thanksgiving Day is the second best day to shop online since most Black Friday deals are available before you've even boxed up your leftovers.

Now that Cyber Monday takes place on Friday and you can get your Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving; what's to stop retailers from moving the deals up even further? Nothing, that's what!

"Each year, retailers move their Black Friday promotions earlier and earlier, and I expect that trend to continue this year," de Grandpre said, "Last year, Kmart led the way with its Black Friday sale on Halloween weekend. It wasn't a very good sale, but regardless, expect even more "Early Black Friday" promotions this year during that weekend and the first two weeks of November, with a lot of variability on how good the deals are."

There you have it, online sales are already on their way and you haven't even had time to get your home made Halloween costume made.

With most of our 2009 Black Friday Predictions going up for sale on Thanksgiving Day, it will be a wonder if shoppers will still need anything on Cyber Monday 2009.

For more Black Friday coverage, check out our Black Friday Deals and other Black Friday 2009 news today.