By Rachel Tobin Ramos

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gifts ranging from Advent calendars to motivational books and CDs were hurriedly stuffed into boxes at the PBD warehouse in Alpharetta on Monday.

It wasn’t just any Monday for the firm, but so-called Cyber Monday, a day when many Americans shop for online deals to save time, money, hassle or all of the above.

Alpharetta-based PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services, which fills orders placed at retailers’ and charities’ Web sites or toll-free numbers, is one of many such companies nationwide that bulked up the workforce and flexed forklifts to handle orders Monday.

Retail forecasts call for growth in online holiday sales this year, while sales at brick-and-morter retailers dip.

As of 11 a.m. Monday, PBD said orders were steady, but not overwhelming. “We were hoping it would be better,” said Scott Dockter, president and CEO. “It’s not much better than last year.”

By the evening, the company reported sales were up 5 percent from 2008, which saw a 25 percent drop from 2007.

Optimism about online sales is based on ever-increasing acceptance of the idea among shoppers -- especially cash-strapped consumers scouring the Web for the cheapest prices this year.

Hoping to cash in on the trend, even traditional retailers advertised drastic discounts online and free shipping.

The idea of a big push on the Monday after Thanksgiving dates to the early years of this decade, when shoppers used employers’ faster internet connections to shop at work. Now, with high-speed connections in most homes, online shopping is a 24/7 affair until a couple days before Christmas.

But online retailers continue to push Cyber Monday to hype discounts and generate enthusiasm.

Coremetrics, a Web analytics firm in California, said total sales were up 11 percent over last year by early evening, even though the average order amount fell about 12 percent. Several organizations reported increased online spending starting on Thanksgiving.

ComScore, a firm that measures digital spending, said that from Nov. 1 to Nov. 27, consumers shelled out $10.6 billion online, a 3 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

On Black Friday, consumers spent $595 million online, an 11 percent increase over Black Friday 2008, comScore reported, making it the second biggest online spending day this year.

“Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world,” comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a statement.

He said it was an “encouraging start,” but noted that the acid test will come in the next few weeks. Early results, he added, “may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers.”

Even though orders didn’t outpace expectations at PBD, the company still had to hustle to deal with increased weekend orders.

Shipments for just one of the company’s clients -- a major toy maker -- increase on Cyber Monday from more than 2,000 a day to more than 12,000, said Greg Dockter, vice president of sales and marketing for the family-owned company. PBD’s toy division is in Pennsylvania, where it added a second shift of 50 workers.

“You have to prepare for it all year,” he said. The company has to make sure it has enough staff in place to get orders out on time and enough space in the warehouse for the stock. The company gets forecasts from clients to plan ahead, he said.

PBD processes orders for toy makers, retailers and charities from five U.S. and one overseas warehouses, totaling more than 4.5 million packages annually.

The National Retail Federation, a trade group made up of the nation’s largest retailers, reported that 195 million shoppers visited stores and Web sites Black Friday weekend, up from 172 million during the same period last year. But average spending dropped to $343.31 from $372.57 a year ago. Total spending was about $41.2 billion, vs. $41 billion a year ago.

”Everything is shaping up for a good weekend,” said Scott Dockter, “but not a great one.”