Click Monday to drive online retail

Pumpkin Patch is one of 80 retailers pushing online sales for Click Monday.

Click Monday's organisers are expecting a strong uptake by shoppers when the online marketing event kicks off this evening.

The local version of the Northern Hemisphere's "Cyber Monday" will begin at 7pm tonight and run for 24 hours.

More than 80 retailers - including Briscoes, Rebel Sport, Hallenstein Brothers, Glassons, Whitcoulls, Icebreaker and Smith & Caughey - are taking part.

All of the brands will list their deals on a central website, clickmonday.co.nz, and shoppers will be able to click through to retailers' websites to make purchases.

Cate Bryant, an e-commerce consultant who organised Click Monday, said a number of additional retailers had signed up for the event since Friday, including children's clothing retailer Pumpkin Patch and Dick Smith.

"We're getting 30 people a minute signing up to our database, so that's growing in the thousands per hour," Bryant said. "It certainly looks like we've got the wind behind us now."

Click Frenzy, Australia's version of the online shopping event, was dubbed "Click Fail" after a technical meltdown occurred last year.

But this year's Click Frenzy, which took place this month, was hailed a success by Australian media.

Independent data from IBM showed the online sales of participating retailers were 16.3 per cent up on the 2012 event, The Australian reported.