There seems to be no shortage of nicknames for days during the holiday shopping season. Black Friday was all alone for years until Cyber Monday came along. Now it has Gray Thursday, aka Thanksgiving, and Green Monday to keep it company, along with Giving Tuesday, Free Shipping Day, Restock Tuesday,…
eBay coined the term Green Monday in 2007. It traditionally means the second Monday in December, and Shop.org says it has become a key measurement in online sales.
However online sellers may not be seeing any great urgency to Green Monday. Three out of ten responding to Shop.org’s brief survey on the topic weren’t planning any special offers for the day. Big name retailers do seem to be engaging in some Green Monday marketing, judging by online ads seen for companies like Amazon and Walmart.
For other ecommerce pros dealing with finding sales during this year’s shortened holiday shopping season, the benefit may come in returning customers and repeat business long after the wreaths and trees have been put away until next year. Technology/marketing firm Monetate suggested some ideas to get those shoppers to come back.
Naturally, good customer service and support are an important aspect of the sales experience. Likewise a clear and friendly returns policy can help; someone having an easy time coming back to change their minds about a purchase may feel good about shopping with that merchant at a later time.
An optimized thank you page can help push one’s customer toward a desired action. A prime example demonstrated at Amazon.com is how they encourage customers to share their just-completed shopping experience. This attempts to take advantage of the incredible value and implied trust of word-of-mouth marketing.
For site checkouts that don’t require the customer to login to an account, the closing page represents another opportunity to get them to do so. Or, one could offer a signup for an email newsletter for future marketing opportunities.
Along those lines and considering the rise in mobile device usage by shoppers, one might also suggest signing up for text alerts or even downloading the company’s mobile app. Both give online sellers the chance to deliver targeted ads that should be seen faster than an email would. With luck they will be acted up quickly from that mobile too.
An analysis of Green Monday spending in 2012 showed growth was driven by both an increase in the number of buyers (up 7 percent to 9 million) and an increase in spending per buyer (up 6 percent to $140.95). Stay tuned for this year’s Green Monday numbers.
