It’s almost here! Soooo exciting! What’s the big deal? WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL!?!?! Free shipping day! That’s the big deal!
I’m not just talking this up for promotional purposes (though we are participating again). This truly is my favorite online shopping day of the year from a retailer’s standpoint.
So what makes Free Shipping Day such a highlight for me? Because I get to ship smiles. I’ve been participating in this one-day-a-year event for the past few years, and of all the orders I receive, most are going to other people, which means we’re shipping Christmas presents. The recipients open their packages, bust open the package, read the name on the tag, and they know someone was thinking of them. Then they open the wrapped goodies inside and get to experience our amazing products (if I do say so myself).
A little personal story… I was in graduate school the first time around back in the days when the internet was infantile and online shopping wasn’t really a thing. I certainly didn’t have internet or email myself. I’d get mail order catalogs and thumb through them at night while I was unwinding, choosing gifts for people that I thought they’d love, mailing my check and order form, and waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Finally I’d get the little salmon slip in my mailbox announcing a package had arrived for me, and I’d schlep it back to my apartment, barely heeding the envious looks of other students (“Package! I like packages!” I felt the same way when someone else got one.). Once back in my apartment, I ripped into the box, rifled through all the packing material, and pulled out my order, oohing and ahhing over the items, imagining how much this person or that person would (hopefully) love this gift. Then, I’d wrap the gift and place it under the tree, delightedly expectant of the joy of giving it and watching the recipient unwrap it.
I feel that same sense of expectant joy when I’m wrapping these packages to ship on Free Shipping Day. While I don’t get to see the recipients’ faces, it still excites me knowing that I have some small part in the love they might feel in this holiday season.
