Black Friday's online sales were up 35% year over year, and early reports for Cyber Monday put the gain at 19.6%. Amazon (AMZN), as an online pure-play, has felt a lift from both these factors, but its execution in the e-reader category can't be ignored. While Sony (SNE) and Barnes & Noble (BKS) have already sold out of their respective devices, effectively taking them out of the game until early next year, Amazon's Kindle continues to fly off the shelves.

So, what's the prize for effective forecasting and a supply chain that can delivery on it? A new record!

Amazon had its best Kindle month yet in 2009, though it wouldn't reveal how many of the devices it has moved or the revenue it's pulled in from these sales. All it would say is that some buyers were buying more than one Kindle at a time, and businesses and organizations were picking them up in volume for employees or clients.

Borders Group Inc. (NYSE:BGP) has finally woken up and smelled the overpriced coffee.

The book retailer is dramatically scaling back its brick-and-mortar operations and is focusing on the Internet. Too bad for shareholders this is 2007 and not 1999. I am not sure how much patience Wall Street has left for Borders. Perhaps the company would do better in private hands.

Shares of Borders are down 9% over the past five years, under-performing Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE:BKS) which rose 20% and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), up 184%. The company also faces stiff competition from other rivals including Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ:COST) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT).

The turnaround plan Borders announced is smart.

It's ending its alliance with Amazon and launching its own e-commerce site next year. The company will sell or franchise its superstores overseas and will close nearly half of its Waldenbooks outlets in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal [subscription required]. Borders also will sign more deals with best-selling authors and celebrities to beef up its proprietary publishing operation, the paper said.

Still, the future is very uncertain for Borders.

Today the retailer reported a fourth quarter net loss of $73.6 million, or $1.25 per share, compared with profit of $119.1 million or $1.78, a year earlier. Revenue rose 2 percent to $1.5 billion. Excluding charges profit was $1.61. Analysts were expecting profit of $1.63 on revenue of $1.48 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

Investors are going to want to see improvement pretty quickly.