Even with a 7.2 percent growth in Black Friday weekend sales this year anda surge in Cyber Monday spending, the challenging economy, struggling housingmarket and rising unemployment have retailers preparing for the slowestholiday shopping season in 10 years. In light of the economy, more cash-strapped consumers are comparison shopping and deal hunting, searching onlineto find the lowest prices on hot ticket items. With more consumersaggressively seeking low prices, the popularity of online shopping is rising.Shoppers Advantage is poised to see its orders rise this year, by providinglow prices on hot electronics, housewares, appliances, toys, and everydayitems.

"Budget conscious consumers are looking for great deals and discountsduring a volatile economy, including the latest electronic gadgets, homefurnishings, jewelry and gifts for the children," said Brad Eggleston, vicepresident of Shoppers Advantage.

To help track the hottest gifts this season, Shoppers Advantage hascreated the 2008 Elf Alert, a weekly ranking of the hottest gifts in the land.

Here are this week's best sellers: 1. Canon Digital Elph 8 mega pixel camera 2. Nintendo Wii Fitness w/balance board 3. Apple iPod Touch, 16 GB 4. Apple iPod Nano, 8 GB 5. Garmin Nuvi 255 GPS receiver 6. Motorola H375 Bluetooth headset 7. Apple iPod Touch, 8 GB 8. Tomtom One automotive GPS unit with 3.5-inch LCD 9. Panasonic KXTG cordless phone with three handsets 10. Apple iPod Classic, 120 GB According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), discount shopping andonline shopping are both on the rise this year. Nearly 70 percent of consumersplan to shop at discount stores this season, according to the NRF, and theInternet will influence 33.6 percent of purchases in 2008, up from 30.2percent last year and 28.9 percent in 2006. A survey released this week byShop.org revealed 84.6 million consumers would shop online during CyberMonday, up from 72 million in 2007 and 60.7 million in 2006.

Shoppers Advantage offers online shopping, which means significant savingsfor consumers. The company's special partnerships with manufacturers allowclub members to save 10-50 percent off manufacturers' list prices. Membersalso receive 3.5 percent cash back on their purchases, just for shoppingonline, as well as a 60-day low price guarantee which offers them a 200percent refund of the purchase price difference if they are able to find anitem elsewhere for less.

Consumers can also give the gift of savings to their friends and family bygiving a membership to Shoppers Advantage or other membership clubs such aswww.greatfunonline.com or www.travelersadvantage.com where they can save onentertainment and travel.

About Shoppers Advantage

Shoppers Advantage, www.shoppersadvantage.com, is a leading membership-based, toll-free/online shop-at-home service, boasting the buying power ofmillions of members nationwide. Shoppers Advantage provides valuable benefitsand low prices on an expansive database of high-quality products from morethan 1,000 manufacturers, including popular name brands such as Sharp, GE,Hewlett Packard, Fisher Price and AT&T. Shoppers Advantage offers memberconfidence in buying with a 200 percent Low Price Guarantee (if a lower priceis found within 60 days of purchase, Shoppers Advantage will refund double theprice difference), 60-day product return policy if you don't like the product,and product warranty extension for up to two years while membership is active.Shoppers Advantage is offered by Affinion Group, a leader in the membership,insurance and loyalty marketing businesses, providing products and servicesthat touch the lives of millions of Americans.

About Affinion Group

As a global leader with nearly 35 years of experience, Affinion Group(www.affinion.com) enhances the value of its partners' customer relationshipsby developing and marketing valuable loyalty, membership, checking account,insurance and other compelling products and services. Leveraging itsexpertise in product development and targeted marketing, Affinion helpsgenerate significant incremental revenue for more than 5,300 affinity partnersworldwide, including many of the largest and most respected companies infinancial services, retail, travel, and Internet commerce. Based in Norwalk,Conn., the company has approximately 3,300 employees throughout the UnitedStates and in 10 countries across Europe, and markets in 14 countriesglobally. Affinion holds the prestigious ISO 27001 certification for thehighest information security practices, is PCI compliant and Cybertrustcertified. For more company and investor information visithttp://www.affinion.com.

SOURCE Shoppers Advantage