This week's Cyber Monday retail event on the internet is shaping up to be the best ever, according to many retail industry watchers. Retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) had heavy promotions this past Monday, along with online-only retailers Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Buy.com.

Did possible record sales come after heavy price chopping, or was the Cyber Monday sales push more customer-driven? Heavy discounting already is being looked at as the cause, and although legit, it could cause a large dip in profits to those retailers overexercising the strategy.

Regardless, if Cyber Monday turns out to be the largest-ever internet shopping day in past holiday seasons, it will interesting to see if more consumers shifted holiday purchases outside the Black Friday period to online merchants and away from physical merchants. Or, if customers simply shopped at home with large retailers using their PCs instead saving their own time and gasoline.

With energy prices still high and credit tight in some circles, more than 66% of retailers surveyed by the National Retail Federation offered online discounts or free shipping this past Cyber Monday. If you add all those economic factors, it's no wonder more customers fired up those PCs to shop instead of trying to score bargains in person.