With an increasing number of retailers joining the "Black Friday Deals Week" fray, offering the lowest-possible prices on the hottest items, retail experts predict that the actual number of shoppers making a beeline for the alluring discounts will, as always, decide the fate of the holiday season.

Going by some of the recently-forwarded statistics by consulting firm Accenture, nearly 52 percent of US shoppers will likely hit the stores to grab the exclusive Black Friday deals, as compared to 42 percent shoppers reported last year.

According to Accenture, the most popular shopping venues this time round will be the discount stores like Wal-Mart and Target, followed by department stores.

Yet another statistics from the trade group National Retail Federation, nearly 134 million people would likely have shopped at various US retailers by the forthcoming Sunday, thereby marking a
5 percent increase over the last-year figures.

Saying that the expected increase in the number of shoppers is more an indication of their desire for a great deal, rather than their cramped demand, Pam Danziger - head of retail consulting firm Unity Marketing - remarked: "It's not about shopping to find gifts. It's about shopping to get really attractive discounts."

Meanwhile, with a number of big retailers hitting the Web for offering discounts and initiating Black Friday-style sales online, and with Amazon. com joining the holiday-discount skirmish, the competition for Web shoppers also showed a marked acceleration this week!