Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Target (NYSE: TGT), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Wal-mart (NYSE: WMT) and other retailers with a strong online presence could benefit from the tragic event taking place in Kenya over the weekend. The terrorist event was said to find over 60 dead following shootings at the Westgate mall in Nairobi.

While a similar event is unlikely to happen again, some shoppers might be cautious as November and December near. So far, not much in the media has been made about increased mall security, though you might hear a chirp about it every now and again.

Overall, online retailers have seen strong sales gains in recent years as consumers have found that Internet shopping has become safer, easier, and more convenient. Internet retail rose 26 percent to $1.04 billion on Black Friday 2012, said comScore research last year.

The shift has also caused brick-and-mortar retailers to take drastic measures to prevent a further shift into cyberspace, putting steep discounts on goods in order to draw traffic while some have thrown the book out the window, opening their doors as early as Thanksgiving with huge discounts, versus the typical tradition of opening early on Black Friday.

In 2012, the days surrounding Thanksgiving Weekend saw a big jump in sales and traffic. Last year, research firm BIGinsight said retail traffic rose 9.2 percent to 247 million, while spending was said to increase 12.8 percent to $59.1 billion over the four-day weekend.

While retailers still have a distinct advantage for the holiday rush, it will be interesting to see whether or not those numbers will skew in favor of Internet shopping this year.

Our guess? Most are likely to forget about last weekend's event and won't let it alter their shopping plans, though its always good to be a little skeptical.