By Monica Chen

mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

DURHAM -- After surviving a dismal holiday season last year that came on the heels of a major financial crisis, national retailers are determined not to repeat the experience this year. They're ramping up Black Friday promotions this year, unveiling discounts earlier and being more conservative with inventory.

J.C. Penney, Best Buy, Walmart and a number of other national retailers have already posted scrollable Black Friday doorbusters circulars on their Web sites with location-specific information.

In addition to various discounts in apparel and home goods, J.C. Penney is also running sweepstakes on Facebook for a pampered Black Friday shopping experience as well as other perks to customers -- such as pre-recorded wake-up calls from Cindy Crawford, Kimora Lee Simmons and other celebrities.

The national retailer, which has a store at The Streets at Southpoint mall, unveiled Black Friday doorbuster deals online Monday, one day earlier than in previous years.

"Customers are being very thoughtful when it comes to their spending this holiday season," said J.C. Penney spokeswoman Kate Coultas. "This really gives customers more time to go online and create their shopping list in advance for their plan of attack."

Coultas said that because of the economy, the retailer had curtailed inventory buys for the holiday season this year in the spring and summer.

About 60 percent of J.C. Penney's inventory will be held back in warehouses this year to prevent overstocking and provide the company with more flexibility to what consumers are buying at different locations.

"Last year, our clearance items were competing with our gift items," Coultas said. "So this year, we've been more conservative in our inventory."

The International Council of Shopping Centers noted in its holiday forecast that the 2009 season will be an improvement over 2008 simply because some competition has been removed from the industry. A number of companies have closed in the past year, and the stores remaining, the ICSC said, will be stronger as a whole.

The lean inventories and an economy that is somewhat in recovery will be good for retailers that "price right" for the holiday season, the ICSC said.

The organization projects 2009 holiday sales to increase by 1 percent to 2 percent. "That is not strong, but it is likely to be much better than in 2008 and signal better times ahead for 2010," the ICSC said.

Malachy Kavanagh, an analyst for the ICSC, said the moderate gains in retail this year will be the result of such inventory cuts.

"The retailers won't have as much inventory to mark down. They're cutting back on expenses and inventory level," he said. "They had a bad Christmas last year and they don't want to have a repeat of it."

"I think consumers by and large know that there are going to be some really good bargains on Black Friday," he said. "There's really this case of who's going to blink first, consumer or the retailer."