Green Monday - The Greatest Shopping Day You've Never Heard Of

Green Monday is your chance to score one more wildly busy shopping day on your website before the holidays. Falling on the second Monday of December, this is the day most people receive their second paycheck for the month. With only ten days until Christmas, many people tend to buy all their last-minute gifts on Green Monday. 

That's why Green Monday has become known as the third-best day for online shopping, right behind Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Initially coined by eBay in 2007, Green Monday sales have grown over the years to become a significant opportunity for shoppers and merchants alike. 

In 2019, Green Monday saw an 18% jump in shoppers and a 12% increase in page views across the U.S. In 2019, Green Monday saw a total of $386 million in online sales, and analysts expect 2020 to exceed those numbers.

On Green Monday, sales haven't yet surpassed the holiday one-two punch of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but it's still a lucrative shopping event that every eCommerce merchant should take advantage of. 

Get In On The Green Monday Action

Various retailers use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to extend their promotions to the whole week, usually branded as "Cyber Week." While it's possible to expand this lengthy promotion to include Green Monday, we don't recommend that approach. Instead, we suggest that you promote Green Monday as its own entity during "Cyber Week." Build up Green Monday as an explosive day in which Cyber Week deals improve and frame it as the perfect opportunity to purchase last-minute holiday gifts.

By building up anticipation for the shopping day, your customers will be waiting on the edge of their seats to get in on rock-bottom prices. Effective Green Monday sales usually begin at midnight and run for 24 hours.  The desire to find the best possible holiday deals is a powerfully motivating force (as we’ve seen in numerous Black Friday YouTube videos), so capitalize on this phenomenon. 

Make sure you don't focus on Green Monday too early. You don't want to undermine your other big shopping days. The idea is to include Green Monday as an added "bonus" shopping day right after the excitement of Black Friday and Cyber Monday dies down a bit. That's why we recommend you introduce Green Monday marketing after Cyber Monday has passed. Promoting it before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend could lead your customers to ignore those days and wait until Green Monday arrives. 

Adapting Your Website And Marketing For Green Monday

If you want to profit the most from the holidays, you need to prepare a thorough marketing plan and update your online store accordingly. Adapting your marketing and website for the holidays is a big job, with different opportunities and problems to account for compared to the rest of the year. To learn more about the process of preparing your online store for the holiday season, check out Kensium's holiday readiness guide.

We recommend you start planning 1-3 months before Green Monday. Decide on your promotions first (discount amount, qualified free shipping, specific items on sale, etc.), and verify that you have enough inventory available. Prepare a dedicated landing page that includes promotion details and popular items on sale. Then choose which digital channels for your Green Monday promotion (for example your website, email, and social media accounts). After all of that is done, start preparing the campaign content. 

You'll need the ability to run multiple, overlapping promotions in your online store, so ensure that you've equipped yourself with the right eCommerce software to facilitate those. Both Magento 2 and BigCommerce offer Catalog and Cart Price Rules that make it easy to set up promotions at the drop of a hat. You can use price rules to offer customer incentives, such as:

• Send your best customers a coupon for a discount on a specific product.
• Offer free shipping for purchases over a certain amount.
• Schedule a promotion for a specific time frame.

We at Kensium offer full implementations of Magento 2 and BigCommerce to prepare you for the next holiday season. Or, if you want some quick advice before the end of December, we offer digital marketing consulting services and a ton of free resources to help you learn how to promote Green Monday best. Contact Kensium here and see what you think. 

Happy Holidays From Kensium!