Shoppers across the world are starting to reap the dividends of retailers’ special offers for Black Friday, observes online shopping community site Socialshopping.com.

Traditionally a US concept held the Friday after Thanksgiving Day where high-street retailers offer short-term discounts in stores, the growth of online retail as well as community websites like Socialshopping have led to increased international interest in 2010.

In addition to deals on Black Friday itself (Friday 26th November), many online retailers have started promotions early and will continue to do so into next week, with Monday 29th November christened ‘Cyber Monday’.

“There’s been a real buzz amongst our members in the past couple of weeks,” says Mark Armitage, Director of Marketing Communications for Socialshopping. “Big-name international retailers such as Amazon are starting to advertise special Black Friday Deals outside of the US, and the shopping fanatics on our site have been raving about the bargains they’ve been finding online.”

Socialshopping.com, which this week welcomed its 1000th member to the site, offers a unique twist on the average shopping portal by delivering an open technology platform which allows consumers and shop representatives alike to create pages and share information about their favorite brands and products.

Membership is free for all, with additional features including the ability to create a member profile with status updates and messaging functionality, as well as the facility to follow your favorite shops or other members and personalize your homepage with offers which are relevant to you.

You can join the Socialshopping community at www.Socialshopping.com, or check out their dedicated section on Black Friday deals at http://www.socialshopping.com/member/blackfridaysales/