Amid the hype of the major shopping days throughout the holiday season, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Super Saturday, another high-grossing shopping day caught the eye of major retailers this year: Green Monday.
Green Monday doesn’t have the name recognition of the other heavily marketed holiday shopping days, but big box retailers and department stores such as Walmart, Macy’s, Kohl’s and Best Buy are beginning to understand its importance to the overall holiday strategy.
While some consumers might think the branding of yet another shopping day is overdone, Green Monday isn’t a shopping theme that was just created out of thin air. eBay actually is credited with giving it the name in 2007 after discovering a sales spike on the second Monday of December.
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Here’s a glimpse of where the shopping day is trending:
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ComScore data indicates that Green Monday generated $1.6 billion in online revenue in 2014, making it the third-highest online spending day in the U.S.;
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Green Monday generated 15.4% more e-Commerce revenue this year than in 2014, while orders grew 14.3%, according to data from the Custora E-Commerce Pulse;
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Fortune estimated that the day would reel in as much as $2 billion when taking into account seasonal e-Commerce growth rates.
Why Green Monday Fits
Green Monday is a solid promotional fit for retailers; its scheduling comes two weeks after Cyber Monday and at least 10 days before Christmas every year. Shoppers have had just enough time to cool off from the aggressive Black Friday weekend marketing campaigns and are now encouraged to shop before they have to do everything at the last minute.
With promotions attracting greater sales this year, it will be interesting to see how retailers approach Green Monday in 2016. While the day once again turned out to be a massive success, Walmart and Best Buy were among the few retailers that overtly attached their sales to the “Green Monday” theme. Many retailers included their own sales comparisons to those on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but there was very little actual mention of Green Monday itself online.
As of now, many consumers may not even be aware the day exists, and thus wouldn’t otherwise target Green Monday as their preferred day of spending.
The success of the day as it presently stands combined with the potential for more consumer awareness represents a tremendous opportunity for these retailers as they create new holiday promotions.
