All shopping and no play make cybermen crazy! (Flickr/Kevin Marks)

After a Black Friday marred by social media reports of violence at brick-and-mortar stores and increasing scrutiny over companies opening their doors during Thanksgiving, retailers received yet another blow when preliminary numbers from over the weekend indicated weak holiday sales.

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141 million Americans braved long lines and surly crowds for Black Friday deals, a slight uptick from last year, but individual consumer spending dropped nearly 4 percent. The disappointing numbers revealed the worst sales data for Black Friday since 2009 and reinforced the bleak consumer spending outlook generated by a dreary consumer confidence index reading for November.

Now with six fewer calendar days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than normal, retailers are in a minor panic to make up ground.

Cue Cyber Monday. 

The online shopping holiday, and the bane of office managers everywhere, is expected to pull over 131 million online customers into virtual checkout lines. And indicating how quickly smartphones and tablets have changed shopping habits, nearly one in five transactions will be on a mobile device. 

Not surprisingly, retailers have caught on that folks are shopping for electronics on their electronics devices. Deep discounts were offered across the board on touch screen devices and other bits of silicon.

Amazon discounted its Kindle Fire HDX $50 for Cyber Monday. Motorola was selling its flagship Moto X smartphone for $349 without a contract. Wal-Mart heavily discounted the iPad Mini. Best Buy was selling an Asus 15.6" laptop with accessories for only $279.99. Even Barnes & Noble got in on the action, unloading its Nook Simple Touch e-reader for just $39.

While retailers are hoping the momentum will spur holiday sales, it was consumers that reaped the immediate benefits. Analysts are expecting consumers to spend at least $2 billion on Cyber Monday and online sales were up 21.4 percent by midday according to data from IBM. 

It continues a trend of robust growth for online retail sales.

The early numbers did little to calm investors, as the S&P retail index fell to 0.7 percent and stocks dropped largely in response to discouraging Black Friday numbers. The hope from retailers is that Cyber Monday will be a herald of December fortunes. But customers are likely to see deep discounts until Christmas, both online and at brick-and-mortar stores, on consumer goods despite the positive online sales data. 

Just in time to buy dad that American flag vest he's always wanted.