Free Shipping Day is a one-day event held annually in mid-December. On the promotional holiday,

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

s can shop from both large and small online merchants that offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve.

History

Free Shipping Day was started in 2008 by Luke and Maisie Knowles, founders of Coupon Sherpa and FreeShipping.org, in an effort to extend the online shopping season. Statistics at the time showed online shopping peaked on

Cyber Monday Cyber Monday is a marketing term for e-commerce transactions on the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It was created by retailers to encourage people to shop online. The term was coined by Ellen Davis of the National Retail Fe ...

, generally held the week immediately following Black Friday. Consumers believed they would not receive their online orders in time for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

after that date. The first event was created in two weeks by Knowles. Several hundred merchants participated and media attention was unusually high. In 2009, more than 750 retailers participated, with 350,000 plus sales taking place through the official site FreeShippingDay.com. Merchant participation has more than doubled each subsequent year. Knowles talked with ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine writer Brad Tuttle in 2010 about the role of free shipping as a promotional tool, saying, "I see a trend of free shipping offers around the holidays having a lower threshold than they have in years past ... we are seeing more merchants offering free shipping on ALL orders". Free Shipping Day was featured on NBC's ''Today'' show, '' Fox Business'',

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

and CBS's ''Early Show'', as well as in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

Real Simple ''Real Simple'' is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. The magazine features articles and information related to homemaking, childcare, cooking, and emotional well-being. The magazine is distinguished by its clean, unclut ...

'', '' Better Homes and Gardens'', ''

O, The Oprah Magazine ''O, The Oprah Magazine'', also known simply as ''O'', is an American monthly magazine founded by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Communications. Overview It was first published on April 19, 2000. , its average paid circulation was ...

'' and more than 70 other media outlets. In 2010, the third Free Shipping Day began at 12 a.m. EST on Friday, December 17, and ended at 12 a.m. EST, December 18. More than 1,700 merchants from all 50 states participated and the official site saw 317,000 unique visitors. Online shoppers spent $942 million to make Free Shipping Day the third highest spending day of the 2010 holiday season, ultimately boosting online sales 61 percent from 2009. In 2011, Free Shipping Day became a billion-dollar shopping holiday with $1.072 billion in sales, followed by $1.01 billion during Free Shipping Day 2012. In 2013, Knowles changed the format of Free Shipping Day to only include merchants that could waive all minimum order requirements and guarantee delivery by Christmas Eve. Sales during the event on December 18, 2013, were $868 million, jumping to $926 million the following year.

Global

The event creators have also branched out into

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

.Free Delivery Day
UK.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.freeshipping.org/ E-commerce in the United States December observances