It’s not easy being an eCommerce retailer. Just as it is not easy to be a customer – and truly take advantage of the best promotions and discounts. And not miss out on anything.
It seems there’s always a shopping holiday to celebrate. Everybody knows Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but how to prepare for the ones that are not so well-known?
Under the auspices of the Chamber of Digital Economy, Eklektika has prepared a concise guide to the main online shopping days before Christmas which should be useful for both retailers and customers.
Here’s a guide to the 10 most important shopping holidays.
Grey Thursday
Grey Thursday is an opportunity to present deals prepared for the immediately following Black Friday. In recent years, its importance has been growing, and some have even declared that “Grey is the new Black”. For now, this is certainly an exaggeration, but in the future, who knows?
Black Friday
Originally a brick-and-mortar flash sales day, Black Friday has now become a massive eCommerce event. According to Adobe Digital Index, in 2015 customers spent over $2.74 billion on online shopping, and this year’s result is bound to beat this mark.
Small Business Saturday
The goal of this holiday is to convince customers to support their local small businesses. Just like Black Friday, it started as a brick-and-mortar day and is now being hijacked by eCommerce. If you choose to participate, be sure to use the #SmallBizSat hashtag.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday was conceived as the eCommerce answer to Black Friday. It’s a great opportunity for flash sales, discounts, limited-time and limited-stock offers. While we should not expect it to beat Black Friday, it is going to be massive as well.
Re-targeting Tuesday (Bounce-back Tuesday)
The aim of this shopping day is to emphasize the much-better-known preceding days by reaching out to customers who have abandoned their purchases. And there is certainly many of them to reach out to, as the average cart abandonment rate hovers around 80%.
Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving – regardless of whether we are talking about donating money or time, or just helping to spread the word about worthy causes. For charities and foundations, it is a key day to mark in calendars.
Throwback Thursday
This is the day when impulse purchases made earlier in the week are returned. Handling all these returns is not easy – in fact, some companies decide not to participate in Black Friday or Cyber Monday for this reason. The important thing about this day is to make sure that the return process is smooth and streamlined.
Green Monday
That’s the unofficial Cyber Monday 2.0. The name was coined by eBay, for which it is the best sales day of December. What drives Green Monday are gift buyers who want to avoid a potential increase in shipping costs as Christmas approaches. A solid increase in sales this year should be expected.
Free Shipping Day
According to Deloitte, 2/3 of consumers expect free shipping even on purchases made right before Christmas. While this may not be fully feasible, the Free Shipping Day offers an opportunity to respond to this demand while keeping the reduction in margins that comes with free shipping under control.
Super Saturday
That’s the last Saturday before Christmas Day, so it is easy to understand why it is a big day for retailers. It’s a great opportunity for brands to offer limited-time and limited-stock offers, free shipping and other promotions that might convince potential buyers who are still hesitating.
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