Free Shipping Day is Thursday, December 17, 2009

Thank You to All!

We’d like to thank everybody that was involved in the first annual Free Shipping Day. Thanks to the over 250 merchants that participated in Free Shipping Day.

Thanks to all the blogs and websites, newspapers, radio stations and tv stations that helped spread the word about Free Shipping Day. Without you only our close friends and relatives would have known about it.

Thanks to the procrastinators who chose to do their online shopping on Free Shipping Day. You have all helped to make this an amazing shopping holiday that we hope will grow into being the next Cyber Monday or Black Friday.

A few highlights:

• More than 250 merchants participated.
• Hundreds of websites, newspapers, radio stations and TV stations helped spread the word about Free Shipping Day.
• Over 100,000 visitors to www.FreeShippingDay.com on Free Shipping Day.
• Over 250,000 visitors to www.FreeShippingDay.com since the site went online December 8th.

We were amazed with the positive response merchants had to the idea of Free Shipping Day. They could see that we were trying to extend online shopping later into December and were quick to get on board with Free Shipping Day. For some merchants, Free Shipping Day was the biggest day of the year for them.

Below are a few quotes from merchants who participated in the event.

“I’m the owner of Charm Boutique, one of the merchants who took part in free shipping day. I just wanted to let you know that we had our highest visitors ever on the site yesterday which resulted in great online sales as well.”
-Kari Kraichely of Charm Boutique

“My affiliation with Free Shipping Day has brought tremendous exposure to OhToy.com.”
-Jonathan of OhToy.com

“Wow! We tripled our business yesterday! It’s 7pm Eastern time and my
entire staff is still here trying to get all the orders processed and
packed.”
- Julie Swatek of ScrapYourTrip.com

Have a merry Christmas!

- Luke Knowles

Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma Participate in Free Shipping Day

We’re excited to let you know that Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, Williams-Sonoma, Williams-Sonoma Home and west elm are all participating in Free Shipping Day.

Update: 200+ Participating Merchants

There are now more than 200 participating merchants in Free Shipping Day!

When we were planning Free Shipping Day our goal was to have 150 merchants participate. Our new goal is to have over 250 merchants offering free shipping on December 18th with guaranteed delivery by Christmas.

Thanks again to all those who have blogged about Free Shipping Day and linked to this website. The word is getting out about Free Shipping Day and merchants are banging down our door to get involved.

Last Day For Amazon Super Saver Shipping is December 17th

Since Amazon.com is the biggest player in online shopping we thought it would be a good idea to alert shoppers to Amazon’s shipping deadlines.

Highlights:

• Wednesday, December 17th is the last day for Super Saver Free Shipping on orders over $25.
• Thursday, December 18th is the last day for Standard Shipping.
• Sunday, December 21st is the last full day for 2-Day Free Shipping Delivery with Amazon Prime.
• Tuesday, December 23rd is the last day for one-day shipping. Cut off is 3pm PST.

Better hurry up and get your Amazon orders in.

100 Merchants and Counting

Today we went over the 100 mark for merchants that we know are participating in Free Shipping Day.

We expect that number to grow considerably as we get closer to December 18th. Some of the recent merchants that have informed us that they will be offering free shipping that day include JCPenney, The Body Shop, Crate & Barrel, eBags, World Market, Dri-Duck and more.

Thanks to all the blogs, newspapers and television stations that have run stories on this event. They are really helping to raise awareness of Free Shipping Day and encouraging more and more merchants to get on board.

How Free Shipping Day Benefits Merchants

While it is true that Free Shipping Day benefits everybody involved with online shopping from shoppers to delivery companies, it is the merchants that stand to gain the most. Let me explain.

In 2007 online shopping peaked on December 10 with $881 million in sales, while the heaviest spending period for consumers is the week before and the week after Christmas.

There is no reason that online shopping needs to peak 15 days before Christmas when the majority of holiday shopping dollars are spent so much closer to Christmas. Let’s face it, we are a country of procrastinators.

The big questions is, why does online shopping peak on December 10 rather than closer to Christmas? I believe that the closer we get to Christmas the more shoppers fear their orders will not arrive in time for the big day. This is why shoppers get in to their cars and head to the mall to shop.

With Free Shipping Day we can change the way shoppers think and how they shop. By having a SPECIAL day as late as December 18 where shoppers can order online from hundreds of stores that guarantee delivery by Christmas, shoppers will feel confident shopping online later into December.

Add to that SPECIAL day the guarantee of free shipping and it will be an even bigger hit with shoppers.

Instead of online shopping peaking on December 10, it could and should peak much later into December. Free Shipping Day has the potential to increase online sales by hundreds of millions of dollars every December.

For online sales to increase like this, we need complete buy in from merchants. Merchants need to promote Free Shipping Day just like they do Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They need to offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas and tell their customers about it. Only then will shoppers start to feel confident shopping later into December.

The online shopping industry can benefit tremendously from Free Shipping Day. It’s up to the merchants to make it happen. So let’s make it happen.

Calling All Merchants

We have had a lot of interest from merchants wanting to take part in Free Shipping Day. Many will be promoting their offers on their websites as well as on this website. All offers will be posted on Thursday December 18.

If you would like to have your Free Shipping Day offer posted on this site, send us an email.

Download the Free Shipping Day Countdown Widget

The Free Shipping Day Countdown Widget that you see in the right column is now available for download. Let your visitors know about Free Shipping Day by putting the widget on your website/blog.

Copy the html code from the textbox below. Then paste it into the html on your website.

After you put the widget on your website, send us an email to let us know.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.freeshippingday.com/js/flashLoad.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">loadFlash("http://www.freeshippingday.com/widget/widget.swf", "200", "125", "", "", true)</script>

FreeShippingDay.com has BIG first day online

Today was our first full day online and we’re happy to report that over 20,000 people visited the website.

A big thanks to the many bloggers who blogged about Free Shipping Day and all the new merchants that have signed on to offer free shipping on Thursday December 18th with guaranteed delivery by Christmas. Yeah!

We’ve heard from a lot of people who really like the idea of Free Shipping Day. Thanks for your support.

Free Shipping Day is Good for the Environment

Free Shipping Day has the potential to do so much good for the environment.

Online shopping usually slows down as we get closer to Christmas because shoppers don’t want to pay expedited shipping charges. So shoppers get in their vehicles and drive from store to store and mall to mall to find their last minute gifts.

By offering shoppers one last chance to purchase their gifts online with guaranteed arrival by Christmas (while also giving them free shipping) this late into December, retailers are doing an immense amount of good for the environment.

According to Dr. Julia Edwards of the IMRG Online Green Awards 2008 online shopping can have 27 times less of a negative impact on the environment.

“The carbon emission of each item bought online and delivered to the customer is 132 grams of CO2. A staggering 27 items need to be bought on a dedicated car journey to the shops to achieve the same level of efficiency.”

Here’s a few tips on how you can be even greener with your online shopping.

• Order more than one item from a retailer in a single purchase to reduce packaging materials and transportation impacts to the environment.
• Recycle the packaging materials from your purchase.
• Select ground shipping methods over air shipping methods when ever possible.

Do your part for the environment. Ditch the car and go online to do your last-minute holiday shopping.