Green Monday is a big sale day that happens on the second Monday of December. In 2024, it falls on December 9. Green Monday is known to be one of the busiest shopping days, with its popularity only increasing. For many companies, it’s also the last time to order a physical product if a buyer wants it to arrive before Christmas without paying for rush delivery.
Despite it being less known, Green Monday is not part of the alternative holidays calendar like National Houseplant Appreciation Day (January 10th) or National Love Your Pet Day (February 20th). Alongside Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM for short), this day is part of big holiday shopping.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a period crowded with promotions, and it’s difficult for a business to stand out. Green Monday is sometimes called Cyber Monday 2, but unlike actual BFCM, there are fewer companies running sales promotions on this day. The competition for customers’ attention is less fierce, so it’s a great chance for you to increase your sales numbers before closing the year. Plus, you can target late shoppers who still haven’t bought their presents but desperately need to.
Green Monday allows you to talk to your customers without facing all that stiff competition. The issue is, people just came out of a massive Black Friday Cyber Monday shopping spree. You’ll need some creativity to make them interested in another deal. That’s where our email marketing strategies come in.
Set your shipping deadline — the time when you’ll be shipping out all placed orders. You can use this date and time as a cut-off point to stop all promotions and encourage your customers to hurry up so that they meet this deadline.
A shipping deadline is something that no one can postpone, as long as they want to receive their goods in time via standard delivery. This reason for urgency makes sense to your customers, and it will motivate people to buy quickly.
From: Portrait Coffee
Subject: Our Holiday Shipping Deadlines! 🎁
Too many options to choose from can overwhelm and create a so-called choice paralysis or choice overload. As a result, people may not buy anything at all, so consider this when designing your campaign.
Here are a few ways how you can simplify the choice:
Two other ways to make choices easier and faster for customers are bundles and gift cards.
Create bundles of two or more products and discount a bundle instead of individual items.
You can also offer gift cards for people to give to their significant others. The gift cards should be in at least three tiers — for example, budget, middle, and premium. This way, your customers can easily pick one of the three card options and leave all the choices to the gift receiver. You can make physical gift cards with attractive designs and holiday wrapping — like these Amazon ones. Or, you can make them digital.
From: Floyd
Subject: Give the gift of Floyd!
The second Monday of December is usually the order deadline if customers want to use standard delivery and receive their purchases before Christmas. There will always be many who haven’t finished their shopping yet. These last-minute shoppers are a great target audience for your email campaign.
In your emails, emphasize the time when you’ll send out orders to make sure they arrive on time. Repeat the message on your website. Finally, help your customers decide by streamlining gift choices.
The email from Hallertau (below) does just that. It starts the talk by saying “Don’t leave the prezzie shopping till Christmas Eve like you did last year.” Then it provides a choice of gifts for different budgets.
This strategy works well for two reasons. It reminds people of the problem they don’t want to have — choosing a gift in a rush and paying for speedy delivery. It then immediately gives a solution which is easy and quick to use.
From: Hallertau
Subject: Looking for something 👀🎁
Social proof can come in the form of discussions on social media, endorsement from influencers, reviews from experts in your niche, or reviews from your customers. You can use it for any marketing channel, and it will work great for campaigns from your holiday email marketing calendar. Here are a few ways to use it in your Green Monday email campaign:
Don’t use all of these tactics in one email, though. Choose one or two that make sense for your business. For example, in the email below, Buoy tells people about 5,000+ reviews they have and adds a positive testimonial to be even more persuasive.
From: Buoy
Subject: Thank you for over 5,000+ reviews
Follow these best practices to optimize your emails for mobile:
Free shipping is a very popular bonus during a sale, and for a reason. And an extended return period (to compensate for off days during holidays) gives the buyer peace of mind and assures them that they can still return the purchase if something goes wrong. Free shipping and extended returns are a powerful combination that can give that last push to a hesitant customer.
If you sell expensive items, you can offer free shipping for everything. Otherwise, offer free shipping for purchases above a certain sum to keep your profit margins high.
The sale start for your business depends on your goals and situation. Look at your inventory, shipping time from your warehouse to your buyers, and possible delays in delivery because of the holiday season to decide the start of the sale.
The promotion campaign itself can start much earlier. You can announce Green Monday deals right after the end of Cyber Monday (December 2 in 2024).
Tell your customers ahead of the event that you’ll be having Green Monday sales to give them time to prepare. Share what kind of deals you’ll have. Finally, kickstart the sales and send a reminder or two throughout its run.
All in all, plan out an email campaign with 3 to 5 emails.
Here is what your email sequence can look like:
This is just an example of how you can structure your Green Monday email campaign. There can be more emails than five — for example, multiple reminders during ongoing sales, and/or multiple emails in the week before showing your products. You can also send less emails, too.
December is the time when everyone anticipates Christmas and New Year. The general mood is different from Black Friday, but the main sentiment is still about good shopping.
Here are a few examples of great holiday emails to inspire you. Some of them do not mention Green Monday and do not tie their sale to a specific date like it is customary with Black Friday. Instead, these companies use a “holiday sale” approach to justify whichever date and shipping deadline works for them.
From: Hawaiian Host
Subject: 20% OFF Holiday Collection 🎄
Preheader: Green Monday Flash Sale
Although visually there is a lot going on in this Hawaiian Host’s Green Monday email, it delivers all the important facts first. Information about the 20% discount and free shipping on orders above $70 is right at the beginning of the email. The email follows that up with the sale’s duration (three days) and makes it easy to choose by offering only three product options.
From: Grande Cosmetics
Subject: 24 HOURS LEFT ⏳ 25% OFF SITEWIDE!!
Preheader: FREE GROUND SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS
Grande Cosmetics went with a simple sitewide discount and free ground shipping on all orders. The brand also added an element of lottery to the Green Monday sale — a free mystery gift for every purchase. This twist can attract people who don’t need cosmetics but would still buy something to see what they win.
From: New York & Company
Subject: Last Call ☎️ The Green Monday Sale Ends @ Midnight💚
Preheader: Free Shipping On Orders $25+ & Everything 60% Off Or MORE
The New York & Company’s Green Monday flash sale email starts simple, with a big announcement of a 60% discount on everything. It is a “last call” warning, triggering the fear of missing out on a great deal. The brand seals the deal by showing holiday looks for different occasions, which makes it useful and relatable.
From: Raen Optics
Subject: Final Hours: 40% OFF
Preheader: Last-minute gifts for them and you
Raen Optics simplified the choice to the maximum — the brand gives a simple and generous 40% discount sitewide. This “Final Hours” Green Monday email shows only two products — an easy choice for gift givers and those unmotivated to browse the site.
From: Tata Harper
Subject: Ends Tomorrow | 25% OFF Sitewide 🎁
Preheader: Plus, FREE 2-Day shipping & exclusive gifts
This clean and neat Green Monday email design by Tata Harper showcases three different price tiers of possible gifts with three product options for each. At the bottom of the email, the brand also offers to buy a subscription as a gift. Splitting things by tier or category is a good option if you want to show more products but don’t want to overwhelm people with the number of possibilities.
From: Mally Beauty
Subject: 🚨 Final Chance: Up to 50% OFF
Preheader: Big savings this way →
The email campaign from Mally Beauty promotes a big discount and two price tiers of products (three items in each) to choose from. There are two types of discounts: -45% off for buying two things, and -50% off for buying three. Offering different discounts based on purchase sum or number of items is an effective upselling technique.
From: Orangewood Guitars
Subject: New! The Holiday Sale
The email campaign from Orangewood Guitars made the choice very simple — the company offered only two guitars. They also partnered with a Buy Now, Pay Later service (Affirm) for those who’d rather not pay a big sum at once. Free shipping with extended holiday returns (hits the spot with the upcoming Christmas and New Year) seals the deal.
From: Methodical Coffee
Subject: ☕️ Our Team’s Top Picks
The team from Methodical Coffee simplified the choice for their customers by narrowing it down to five blends. They made it interesting by telling a story — these are the blends their team members enjoy most.
From: Tattly
Subject: Ship Your Tattly in Time!
Tattly’s email campaign uses two effective strategies to move customers along to conversion. It shows a clear-cut deadline for in-time delivery and offers only six designs to make it easier to choose a tattoo.
From: Material
Subject: Missed our shipping window?
Once the sale ends, you can wrap it up with an email like this one from Material. It reminds people that there is still express delivery if they need it and promotes the company’s physical stores.
Green Monday is not “crowded” with businesses running promotions. This is a good chance for you to do a sale — you won’t have to compete with many others in your customers’ inboxes.
Green Monday comes only two weeks after BFCM. Use these email marketing strategies to promote your sale:
