Second annual Free Shipping Day slated for December 17

Created to extend the online holiday shopping season for merchants and give procrastinating consumers one final chance to surf the Internet for gifts, Free Shipping Day 2009 expects to attract more than 500 retailers this year.

Holiday shopping procrastinators and retailers alike embraced the inaugural Free Shipping Day, which was held last December 18. The event was so successful that founder Luke Knowles is already planning the second annual Free Shipping Day, which is slated for Thursday, December 17, 2009.

Free Shipping Day represents the last possible 24-hour period when online shoppers can place their orders with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. Knowles – who created FreeShipping.org with his wife, Maisie, in 2007, hatched the idea for Free Shipping Day just two weeks before the event last December. In an abrupt brainstorm, he thought that retailers would relish the opportunity to extend the online holiday shopping season, which typically peaks in early December because consumers are concerned about their gift orders arriving to their intended destination in time for Christmas.

Knowles expected a favorable response from retailers and consumers last year, but he didn’t anticipate the overwhelming interest that the event actually received. Free Shipping Day attracted more than 250 merchants and the FreeShippingDay.com web site saw more than 250,000 hits in a 10-day period, including 105,000 on the actual day itself. Regional and national media outlets (including Woman’s Day, Smart Money, Oprah.com and numerous newspapers and TV stations) covered the event. Knowles projects that more than 500 retailers will participate in this year’s Free Shipping Day.

“Last year, it was so popular that, leading up to December 18, we had major retailers approaching us to be part of the event,” said Knowles, whose site, FreeShipping.org, is a one-stop destination for consumers to find online retailers that offer free shipping deals. “That shows the viability of Free Shipping Day when major companies like JCPenney, Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma reach out to us to participate.”

Retailers large and small embraced Free Shipping Day. For larger merchants, the event provides an additional forum to increase sales without having to draw customers into their physical locations. Some small online retailers set a single-day record for traffic because of their participation. The presence of their respective logos on the Free Shipping Day web site created substantial exposure the businesses otherwise would not have seen.

Businesses can participate in Free Shipping Day and have their logo and free shipping offer posted on the home page of FreeShippingDay.com by visiting the site and filling out a form.

Black Friday, which is the frenetic time when consumers descend upon stores the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday, which commemorates the Monday after Thanksgiving when people return to their offices and surf the Internet for deals, are now a part of American pop culture. Knowles believes it is natural that Free Shipping Day will also become part of our nation’s holiday shopping vocabulary within a few years.

“Simply put, Free Shipping Day is the last chance for many people to buy gifts and get them delivered to the intended recipient just in time,” Knowles explained. “We are a nation of procrastinators, so I think that Free Shipping Day will become a widely recognized annual event.”

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Free Shipping Day is an event which represents a shopping holiday late in December when participating retailers guarantee on-time delivery by Christmas Eve to it’s shoppers. The first event – which was held on Thursday, December 18, 2008 – attracted more than 250 retailers and 250,000 unique visitors on the Free Shipping Day web site, including more than 100,000 visitors on the actual day itself. Free Shipping Day 2009 will be held on Thursday, December 17. For more information, visit www.freeshippingday.com.