Will Twitter and M-Commerce Save Christmas?

(MoneyWatch)  Retailers preparing for a grim holiday season can't discount the role technology will play in where shoppers choose to spend -- and not spend -- their cash.

Twitter, for example, promises to ease bargain hunting for harried customers accustomed to dashing from store to store in search of deals. Case in point: The news Web site Syracuse.com will help upstate New Yorkers navigate through area malls by reposting micro-updates on the shopping experience from its readers. As the site describes it:

We're looking for Twitterers to file instant shopping updates throughout [Black Friday], and we'll post them on Syracuse.com. The tweets can be found at www.syracuse.com/twitter. Tell us where the bargains are found, who's out of stock, who has stock, how long the lines are, even what you have for lunch.

Retailers are also retooling their Web sites for use by Internet-enabled mobile phones and other devices -- a trend sometimes called m-commerce. E-commerce behemoth Amazon.com, the Web's biggest retailer, rolled out an m-commerce site during the spring, paving the way for other businesses with mega online presences. Sears, the eighth biggest Internet retailer with Web sales topping $2.6 billion, launched an m-commerce site of its own in early November, just as department-store chains began advertising holiday specials.

"It's a great step for us on a mobile front; we will measure it on a daily basis," says Ravi Acharya, Sears' director of e-commerce. The new site "makes it easier than ever to cut out holiday shopping hassles and shop from the convenience of your mobile phone." Cellphone users with Internet access can browse the miniature site at Sears2go.com. Customers opting to pick up their purchases in a Sears store receive a text message when the order is ready.

For folks not quite ready to purchase, say, a refrigerator using their cell phones, the good old-fashioned Internet is primed for more holiday shopping than ever before. Online retail spending is expected to reach $44 billion during November and December, according to a Forrester Research study, up 12 percent from the 2007 holiday season. Nearly half of Americans expect to find the best values and deals online, according to the report.

The popularity of online shopping -- whether through e-commerce or m-commerce sites -- could spell trouble for the many already-struggling brick-and-mortar stores trying to make it through the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how much technology ultimately helps the fragile retail industry while hurting business owners without an online presence.