Roll your eyes all you want at the term “Green Monday.”
Yes, it is yet another manufactured shopping occasion, this year falling on Dec. 14, created by retailers desperate to mitigate the holiday season lull between Black Friday and the last shopping days before Christmas.
But retailers have a lot at stake: according to comScore, an e-commerce data firm, Green Monday has become the third biggest online spending day of the holiday season, after Cyber Monday (the day following Thanksgiving weekend) and the day after that. Last year, shoppers spent $1.6 billion on Green Monday, according to comScore, and if sales rise tomorrow at anything like e-commerce’s growth rates for the season so far, we could be looking at a nearly $2 billion day. (Cyber Monday this year saw retailers ring up $3 billion online.)
So Walmart (WMT), desperate to win its share of the spending pie as it fights with Amazon.com (AMZN), is trotting out some of the deepest online discounts it offered on Black Friday, including a number of high-definition televisions and a Star Wars Yoda figure, as well as a few items (such as a $299 Star Wars Play Station 4) at prices lower than on Black Friday.
It’s hardly surprising to see Walmart get aggressive online. Last quarter, digital sales rose 10%, while those at Amazon rose about 23%. And on Cyber Monday, Amazon alone generated 36% of all online sales in the U.S., according to Slice Intelligence, meaning Walmart has to pull out all the stops even if hopes to begin to narrow the gap with its rival.
And Walmart is not alone. All major retailers are also offering Green Monday deals.
Green Monday, aka Cyber Monday redux, actually was created by eBay (EBAY) a few years ago to showcase its biggest December deals. It takes place in mid-December, roughly halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. And with retail spending growth anemic so far this autumn, retailers could use the extra love.
