SEATTLE — Free shipping, discounts, cash-back galore!

Thanks to the worst economic downturn in decades, retailers are clamoring to get shoppers’ attention with all kinds of online deals.

“The name of the game this holiday shopping season will be bargains,” said Brian Smith, shopping engine analyst and CEO of SingleFeed, an online retail data-management company.

“Consumers will ratchet back spending and aggressively hunt for special promotions, coupons and deals. The home pages of online stores will be littered with offers like free shipping on much lower price points, 30 to 50 percent off, buy one get one free, etc.”

A majority of retailers plan to offer free shipping this year, and retailers are compensating for increased shipping costs by renegotiating terms with shipping providers, according to Shop.org, a division of the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation.

American shoppers increasingly say that the Internet is the best place to find a deal.

“The Internet is all about making it more convenient for customers,” said Cliff Hopkins, senior director of U.S. marketing at PayPal. “It’s easy and it saves you time — you can shop from the comfort of your own home.”

Not sure where to get started? We’ve compiled a list of deals available online:

• Beauty.com , owned by Bellevue-based Drugstore .com, is offering free shipping until the end of the year. Spend more than $100 and receive a free cosmetic case designed by fashion designer Rachel Roy.

• Drugstore.com is offering free shipping to U.S. troops stationed overseas, and recommends ordering before Nov. 20 for holiday delivery. It is also offering 5 percent “cash back” to use at its own site in January as part of an ongoing customer loyalty program. A newly launched “deal of the day” page, drugstore .com/deals, is updated daily.

•From Dec. 1 through Dec. 22, PayPal-supported retailers will be offering promotions such as daily deals, cash back and free shipping. These retailers and offers will be listed at paypal.com/holiday.

•Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Couponwinner.com , which launched in 2006, compiles discount coupons and promotional codes and allows the user to search by retailer.

• Bradsdeals.com, which offers 3,000 coupons to 1,000 retail sites, attracts 2 million shoppers per month. Editor-in-chief Brad Wilson has a team of researchers that comb the retail industry to find the best deals. They even calculate savings based on coupons, shipping costs, promotions and other discounts.

• Ebates.com , an online cash-back shopping portal that lists promotions from big-time retailers, is offering double cash back until Dec. 25. The site also features daily online sales, top deals and coupons. After a purchase is made, Ebates.com sends a check in the mail.

• Upromise.com offers money toward college on purchases from more than 600 online retailers, including Walmart.com, Ebay.com, Expedia.com and Eddie Bauer. For each purchase, the retailer will put 1 percent to 25 percent of the money into a college savings account.

• REI is giving away 10 snow-sport-themed digital songs at reigoplaylist.com.