Green Monday sounds like it should have something to do with the environment. Perhaps it’s the day when everyone tries to leave their car at home and cycle to work or take public transport. Maybe it’s about checking your recycling habits and making new resolutions to try even harder. It could even be a day for entire neighbourhoods to discuss how they are going to make life better when it comes to being more environmentally friendly.
It could be.
But it’s not.
Instead, Green Monday happens to be the busiest online shopping day in the month of December. Sometimes known as Cyber Monday 2 (which makes more sense and gives you more of a clue as to what it’s all about), Green Monday falls on the second Monday in December. At this point you are going to have around 10 shopping days left until Christmas, and most people, if they haven’t finished their shopping already, are going to want to get the rest of it done pretty quickly so that they can enjoy the upcoming parties and celebrations without worrying they still have things to buy.
Online Promotions
Realising that Green Monday was becoming something that really happened each year, online stores such as Amazon, Walmart, and Target began to promote it. Of course, this had the result of making the day more well known, and encouraging more and more people to buy on it thanks to the sales that companies put on.
It could be seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy, with something that was a relatively small event become huge (and discounted) due to the stores taking part themselves. But it works for everyone; online stores can work on selling quantity (and perhaps even clearing unsold stock ready for the new year), and people feel they are getting bargains, which is exactly what is needed around Christmas time when funds are always going to be stretched.
What Discounts?
The discounts that are on offer each Green Monday are impressive ones. In 2017, for example, Target offered a discount of 20 percent on every $100 spent on home, beauty, or accessories. JC Penney went further; any order over $100 received 30 percent off. Don’t worry if you think you need to spend a lot of money to benefit; they also offered a 20 percent discount for all orders under $100.
Since the online space is so competitive, and stores are going to want to outdo one another in every way that they can, you can certainly get some great deals on Green Monday. Is it worth waiting until almost the last minute to get your Christmas shopping done? This will depend on your personality, and potentially your funds.
The Christmas Period
For many – perhaps even most – online retailers, the Christmas period is absolutely critical. They need to make as many sales as possible during this time, as it is the one time of the year that, no matter what else is happening in the world and what state the economy is in, people are going to be spending money.
Some retailers make as much as half of their annual revenue during November and December, and if Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Green Monday are going to entice more and more people to spend more and more money (despite the discounts) then they can make the money they need to before the lull in January and February when credit cards are maxed out.
Why Green Monday?
The first sighting of a ‘Green Monday’ was back in 2007. It wasn’t Amazon that discovered it, which you might be forgiven for assuming since they are such a huge online presence, but instead it was eBay. This date was the date that had been set for shoppers to be able to guarantee they would get their purchases before Christmas itself, so there was a big rush of people coming to the site and buying their remaining Christmas presents.
The term ‘Green Monday’ has a couple of meanings. The first is money. Green is a slang term for cash, and since so many people bought on that day, revenues were up – green was good. But there is an environmental aspect too, as we might all have assumed from the start. Shopping online is thought to be more environmentally friendly than heading out to town and back again. The delivery vans deliver hundreds of packages in a day, saving those hundreds of customers driving out to the shops.
Although this last idea may have been an afterthought, it hardly matters. People aren’t buying the goods to be environmentally friendly; they are buying them to save money and be ready for Christmas.
Green Monday used to be the busiest shopping day in the year, but things have changed with the advent of Cyber Monday (and, in fact, Cyber Week). Plus, services including Amazon Prime mean that there is almost no limit to how late you can leave your shopping; you can even buy items on Christmas Eve and have them delivered on the same day, if you don’t mind spending hours wrapping them before bed.
How To Find Good Deals
The Green Monday trend is not as well known as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find some great deals, even if the day itself is becoming eclipsed by other sales.
One way to start is to go to your favourite online stores and search for Green Monday. You might find a banner letting you know about what’s happening, or perhaps an entire page with all the information you are looking for.
Alternatively, you can visit cybermonday.com. This site will give you all the information you need in one place, so you can work out exactly where you are going to buy from, and perhaps even what you are going to buy. Work that out in advance, and your Green Monday can be as simple as finding your abandoned shopping cart and checking it all out with the lower prices attached.
Conclusion
Green Monday is another great way to get some fantastic deals just before Christmas. Make sure you pay attention to the shipping times on whatever it is you choose to buy, however, as you don’t want to be paying for something that isn’t going to get to you in time.
