When it comes to key consumer shopping days during the holiday season, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are by far the longest standing, most popular, and most well-known. Though it seems that the sales for these shopping “holidays” start earlier and earlier each year, with preview days and early access happening well before Thanksgiving, not all consumers are planning and purchasing their holiday gifts that far in advance. For those consumers who may procrastinate, thankfully there’s Green Monday.
Green Monday has been around for about a decade and takes place on the second Monday in December. With a little over a week between Green Monday and the major gift-giving holidays, it’s kind of the “last call” for holiday shopping, at least for online purchases that need to ship directly to your home. With more and more retailers participating in Green Monday, and more consumers becoming aware of the “holiday”, it’s a no-brainer for online businesses to participate in one way or another.
For small businesses looking to take advantage of consumers making last-minute gift purchases, let customers know you’ll be participating in Green Monday. Make sure you’ve got your marketing collateral and strategy developed to communicate with consumers that they can and why they should shop with you that day. Once Black Friday and Cyber Monday have passed, you can publish your offers early to drive awareness, do a little deeper discounting if you need to clear out inventory before the end of the year, and get your logistics in order to fulfill this last rush of orders before the holidays. Then you can sit back and watch the last-minute holiday sales roll in.