Online shopping venues look forward to 'Green Monday'
27.11.2007 21:02
Shopping
- Source: cbc.ca
Despite the drastic price cuts and promotions that characterize shopping on American Thanksgiving weekend, an increasing number of procrastinating shoppers keep cash registers ringing into a new sales high point on the second Monday of December, which retailers have dubbed "Green Monday." Shoppers continue to crowd the malls for Black Friday, and surf for sales on Cyber Monday, but these days also set the stage for the real sales drives closer to the holidays, a release from eBay, PayPal and Shopping.com says. "We're pleased with the early spike in online shopping, but are looking forward to the second Monday in December, or what we've begun to call 'Green Monday,' when we expect online shopping to really peak this season," said Shopping.com CEO Josh Silverman in a release. "Green Monday outpaced Cyber Monday in the past few years in terms of revenue and consumer traffic on our site. More shoppers are comfortable doing the bulk of their online shopping later in the season," he said. In response to this trend, many sites continue to offer promotions and shipping deals into December. Silverman said that of the merchants who work with Shopping.com, "We found that a whopping 72 per cent are offering next-day shipping this year as a response to demand to shop later." This focus on December sales doesn't mean that Thanksgiving weekend sales are a flop. While sales figures for Cyber Monday will not be available until later this week, many sites reported traffic surges and sales meeting, or exceeding, expectations. Online jewelry site Ice.com, said that traffic soared more than 70 per cent and sales by 82 per cent by Monday afternoon. The company's CEO had projected a 65-per-cent gain in business. Ebags.com reported an almost 49-per-cent increase in sales compared with last year, beating expectations for 20 per cent growth. Internet research firm ComScore estimates that Monday's sales exceeded $700 million. With files from the Associated Press
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