Preparing for #GivingTuesday…

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year – the day after Thanksgiving. In years past, consumers waiting for the best deals available lined the streets waiting for doors to open. This year, it was a little confusing because there was no real start. Some stores opened on Thursday evening. Some opened at midnight on Thursday night. Others opened at various morning hours on Friday. While the results are not quite in for this year’s Black Friday sales, they are not looking great. This is most likely due to the fact that all of the varied openings, confused people and people are looking to avoid the crowds and buy online. My projection is that we are going to see record numbers for online purchases on Black Friday. I think many people stayed home to avoid the crowds and buy online.

Cyber Monday (today) is when all those shoppers return to work, and buy on breaks or lunchtime. Retailers typically roll out a slew of incredible deals available only to online purchasers. This year is going to be interesting because I think online retailers were offering many of the online deals on Black Friday. I believe we are going to see some of the biggest numbers in online purchases in recent history.

That brings us to the least known of this post-Thanksgiving trifecta. Thanksgiving kicks off the beginning of the most important part of the year for non-profit organizations… their holiday giving campaigns. #GivingTuesday is the a recent effort of several non-profit organizations to coordinate the launch of a time of thanksgiving and giving to those less fortunate. In fact some charities report that nearly 40% of their contributions come in in the last two months of the calendar year.

What #GivingTuesday is doing is something completely different that Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Giving Tuesday is about coming together and collaborating. Charities are joining together to promote good will and giving.Retailers, in an effort to gain all of the Black Friday business, tried to be the first. That lack of coordination muddied the campaign and negatively impacted the end results.

As we look toward tomorrow, #GivingTuesday, let us learn that power comes from coming together not looking for individual gain.