Today Is Green Monday, Third Biggest Shopping Day of Year
You’ve heard of Cyber Monday, but what’s Green Monday?
— -- Shoppers are experiencing deja vu today if they visit websites like Amazon or eBay. Just one week after Cyber Monday, e-retailers are offering promotions for another pseudo-holiday shopping day: Green Monday.
And "green" has nothing to do with the environment. The moniker refers to the color of money.
Green Monday is the second Monday of December, which is becoming a leading traffic and sales day for online shopping, according to a Walmart spokeswoman.
Online marketplace eBay started Green Monday to mark its busiest sales day in December, usually the second Monday of the month, according to MarketWatch. Its origins date back to 2007, according to PC World, when eBay noticed a surge in shopping activity in weeks leading to Christmas. Green Monday was the third-highest online shopping day of the 2012 holiday shopping season, according to comScore.
“This illustrated the change in consumer behavior and how peak shopping days extended past Black Friday,” eBay spokeswoman Kari Ramirez told ABC News.
Last year, Green Monday e-commerce revenue amounted to almost 50 percent of Cyber Monday revenue, making it one of the top grossing holiday shopping days, according to e-commerce analytics firm Custora. This Cyber Monday, people spent about $2.65 billion, up 16 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe Digital Index.
“It is likely that this year Green Monday will be even bigger, thanks to the ‘stretching holiday shopping’ trend,” said Custora CEO Corey Pierson.
“Bottom line, online shopping is now spread over multiple days during the holiday season, and not just ‘Cyber Monday,’” Pierson said.
Amazon's Green Monday deals will take place in the next four days, including "dozens" of limited time lightning deals on its website. The giant e-commerce website's deals include 30 percent off certain clothing and accessories with the promo code "GRNMON14" and half off Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch tablets, starting at $139.
A spokeswoman for Walmart said the retailer has offered Green Monday deals for the last few years. Today, the company is bringing back online its largest quantities of the top-selling Snow Glow Elsa Doll for $28.88.