Right now you’re probably shaking with anticipation like a kid on Christmas morning waiting to open his/her presents, but we need to give a little background for new readers.

I See Your “Cyber Monday” and I Raise You One “Green Monday” Most people know that Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving, which traditionally marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season for retailers; and that it’s online equivalent (commonly referred to as Cyber Monday) is the following Monday. What most people do not know though is that while Black Friday is traditionally the busiest (and therefore most profitable) shopping day in the retail world, Cyber Monday is not the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season.

The biggest online shopping day of the year had not been given the honor of a snappy moniker until more recently: “Green Monday.” I know what you’re thinking: “Okay great, just tell us when Green Monday will be THIS year!”

Bing’s Holiday Prediction

The people at Bing sent out an email last week staking their prediction for Green Monday as Monday, December 7th. How did they come up with this? They most likely looked at two facts:

1. The number of days between Green Monday and Christmas has been steadily increasing from year to year on average. As Volusion’s Stacie Leonard commented last year in an article for Ecommerce-Guide, “The number of days between the biggest online shopping day and Christmas Day has increased on average, with only six days starting in 2000 and over twice as many in 2007. This reiterates the fact that consumers are doing their online shopping earlier as the years go by. The one instance where the number actually fell instead of rising was a rare case when, for the first time in seven years, the largest day of online sales came on a Wednesday in 2006.”
2. Seven of the last nine years Green Monday has fallen on a Monday (hence the name).

Volusion’s Holiday Prediction

But wait a minute! We promised you Volusion’s holiday shopping season prediction. Last year we forecasted that the biggest online shopping day of the holiday season would be Monday, December 8th, but it ended up falling on the following day- Tuesday, December 9th. Getting so close last year was great but this year we really want to nail it!

Here at Volusion the heads have been hard at work to hone in on what we think the best prediction for Green Monday is this year. Our prediction is Tuesday, December 8th. That’s right! We’re predicting Green Monday will actually be a Tuesday. Why? We examined the same facts that Bing’s people looked at and noticed an additional piece of information. (See the chart below)

(click to enlarge)

The two deviations from the rule of Green Monday falling on a Monday were in 2006 (when Green Monday fell on Wednesday) and 2008 (when Green Monday fell on Tuesday). That means that for two of the last three years, the biggest online shopping day of the year was not on a Monday.

The other two options at that point were Tuesday, December 8th or Wednesday, December 9th. If Green Monday were to be Wednesday, December 9th that would go against the overall trend of online shoppers making their holiday purchases earlier each year. Therefore, we chose Tuesday, December 8th as our prediction for Green Monday 2009.

When do you think Green Monday will be this year? Post your predictions below!

*Please note: All predictions are meant for informational purposes only.

Additional Resources:

2008 Holiday Shopping Prediction for E-Commerce Guide

2008 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Figures

2008 Holiday Shopping Updates

-Kate Pierce eCommerce Specialist
-Stacie Leonard Search Marketing Manager

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