Will Black Friday eventually swallow Cyber Monday?

That could be the inevitable implication of a trend this year in which some retailers launched their best online deals days before Cyber Monday arrived, one Ann Arbor executive said. Many retailers tied early online deals to Black Friday.

“This year there were definitely a lot more online sites playing in Black Friday, which is definitely a trend of note,” said Kevin Ertell, vice president for online retail for Ann Arbor-based ForeSee Results. “In the past you’d see a lot of the … sites would not do something on Black Friday. Now it looks like they’re doing both.”

Online retailers are reporting strong Cyber Monday sales, according to several early reports.

The Wall Street Journal, citing statistics from comScore, said Cyber Monday sales could top $900 million, reflecting a 6 percent increase from 2008.

Ertell said most Black Friday brick-and-mortar retailers offered discounts on specific items. But many online retailers are discounting their entire inventory, he said.

Contact AnnArbor.com’s Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.