I'm a dolt. I ordered…a thing (it's too embarrassing to say what)…from (it's too embarrassing to say from whom) earlier this week, spending nearly $17 for shipping.
If I had waited until this Friday (Dec. 16), I could have had it shipped for free.
Why Friday? Friday is the second annual Free Shipping Day, in which more than 2,000 online retailers will ship your goods to you or your gift recipient for free – and your order will arrive before Santa begins his annual home invasion spree.
Which online retailers are shipping for free? Go to FreeShipping.com to see all the participating free shipping day participants. Don't click on any of the logos you see – at least not until Friday, when a Free Shipping Day logo (the price tag in the photo) will appear under the logo of the participating retailers.
Free Shipping Day runs from midnight Thursday night to midnight Friday night, Eastern Standard Time (so 9 PM Thursday night to 9 PM Friday night on the West Coast).
You can find a lot of pre-Free Shipping Day free shipping offers at FreeShipping.org's main site, which offers all manner of free shipping deals 24/7/365 from nearly 4,000 retailers. Do a search on the retailer from whom you want to shop to get a list of its free shipping details.
But as in all things in capitalism and marketing, "free" doesn't necessarily mean "free."
Mostly free shipping day
As anyone who has shopped at Amazon knows, you get free shipping on orders of more than $25. Whether or not this restriction will stay in place this Friday, many Free Shipping Day retailers will likely impose a similar minimum purchase requirement. Whether or not a retailer's Free Shipping Day policy will differ from a site's usual shipping policy will depend on the retailer.
However, the folks at FreeShipping.org tell me that:
Last year, close to 60 percent of merchants offered free shipping on all orders, and we hope to meet or exceed that amount this year. 75 percent of all clicks on the Free Shipping Day site last year were for merchants who offered free shipping with no minimums.
Of course, many online retailers send out special discounts and free shipping offers to its regular customers if you're on your mail lists. For year-round free shipping offers, you can subscribe to FreeShipping.org Alerts.
How is the free shipping activated? According to a FreeShipping.org spokesperson:
Some merchants will have a code that needs to be entered upon checkout, while others simply require visitors to click on their promotion on freeshippingday.com to activate the offer.
We encourage participating merchants to include a badge on their site advertising participation in Free Shipping Day, so visitors know to look for their deal on FreeShippingDay.com on Friday. Not all merchants do this, however. Consumers should visit FreeShippingDay.com on Friday to learn what kind of promotion their favorite merchants are offering that day, and to compare offers among competing merchants to land the best deal on their desired product.
Free, even with some restrictions, is better than not free, not only Friday but all year around.
Okay, I know you're burning with curiosity about what I ordered – – okay, don't laugh, it's this thing from here. Now all I need is someone to paint my toenails while I eat my bonbons.
Happy shopping!