With Black Friday approaching in the United States, some of the country's major retailers are starting to prepare for the busy holiday season. And with the notorious shopping day regarded by many as busiest day for most stores, Black Friday and the more recent trend for "Cyber Monday" deals are both indicators for retail stock performance in the coming weeks leading up to Christmas.

As customers flock stores in the middle of the night to grab the best deals, many retailers have different strategies to attract business and keep loyal customers throughout the holiday season. Target (TGT  ) creates most of its deals by marking down big ticket items with gift cards, keeping customers coming back for future gifts rather than making the store a one-off stop on Black Friday. Some of the retailer's biggest deals are the Apple Watch (AAPL  ) for $349 with $100 Target Gift Card (for $150 total savings) and Xbox One Gears of War Bundle (MSFT  ) with a $60 Target Gift Card for $300 (for $110 total savings).

For other retailers, the biggest markdowns come on electronics where customers can find tablets, computers, televisions, and gaming consoles for up to half off. As a retailer dedicated to electronics, Best Buy (BBY  ) utilizes its strengths and offers some of the best electronics deals with a Samsung 40" 1080p HDTV and Xbox One The Lego Movie Bundle for $500 ($230 total savings) and an Amazon (AMZN  ) Fire 7-inch 8 GB tablet for $35, an incredible 75% off. Companies like Best Buy rely on Black Friday sales to maintain lackluster performance with the growth of Amazon and other online retailers, which is why you often see some of the biggest sales in store rather than online. The big markdowns combined with the deals' "limited" stock at each store makes customers flock to retail spaces without losing too much profit since the sale items are limited.

After a whirlwind Black Friday, the focus turns to online sales as both digital retailers like Amazon as well as competitors Target and Wal-Mart (WMT  ) aim to get a large chunk of Cyber Monday revenue. Cyber Monday allows retailers to not only further markdown unsold Black Friday items, but also be creative with sales. Amazon, for instance, has its yearly Cyber Monday flash deals where they unveil mystery deals as often as every five minutes. And just like Best Buy's deals, each has a limited quantity and the most in-demand sell out within minutes. But the plan to constantly unveil hidden deals keeps customers on the Amazon.com website throughout the day, driving sales in all of the online retailer's departments.

Despite such an emphasis on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, it is still unclear whether strong performances by retailers is indicative of long-term stock performance. Rather, many investors use strong or weak sales on this massive shopping weekend as an indicator for holiday season retail stock performance. Should the major retailers perform better than expected, investors gear up for a busy holiday season and strong stock performance in Q4. On the other hand, should any store disappoint, it could be indicative of lower-than-average consumer spending this holiday season.

Whatever the outcome for stock performance, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are great ways for consumers to chase major savings while making big purchases for the holiday season. And with more deals being unveiled by retailers in the coming weeks, customer interest is sure to pique, resulting in another record-breaking Black Friday weekend for retailers both in-store and online.