This Labor Day, celebrate your inner sales buff

While it may have been founded as a day to celebrate work and workers, Labor Day is, in fact, the perfect day to celebrate shopping!

According to Shop It To Me’s data, Labor Day weekend 2011 offered discounts averaging more than 48% off on clothing, shoes and accessories on sale online.  That was significantly better than the average discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (for clothing, shoes and accessories on sale online), when we tracked discounts averaging 41-42% off.

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And it’s not just Labor Day weekend!  The deals are expected to start Saturday, September 1 and continue through the following week. Last year, shoppers found great discounts for the first two weeks of September, and although those discounts tapered off slightly after the 10th, September 2011 was one of the best months of the entire year for shopping online sales.

Can’t wait for Labor Day because the kids are heading back to school this month? You’ll find deals almost as good during August. In 2011, discounts averaged 47%-off or better almost every day of August from the 19th through the end of the month.

What to buy? August and September are the right time to shop online for women’s jeans, bags, shoes, outerwear, sweaters, jewelry, accessories, swimwear and sunglasses.  They also are a great time to find discounts on boy’s, girl’s and men’s clothing.

No matter what you’re buying this month, keep in mind 46%-off as a barometer — that’s the average discount on men’s, women’s and kids’ clothing, shoes and accessories sales online in September. You can break the 46% rule if you’re buying items from Tod’s, Prada, Ray-Ban, Patagonia, Tumi and Oakley. If you see these brands offered at a discount of 30% or higher, snap them up because they rarely go on sale.

And don’t forget that, when it comes to shopping holiday weekends, the early bird gets the worm: shop early in the morning at the beginning of the weekend for the best assortment.  Those great deals will make your morning cup o’ Joe even more satisfying.

Methodology: Shop It To Me, the free online personal shopper, analyzed nearly 700,000 markdowns throughout 2011 available from over 150+ online retailers.