Free Shipping Day.

Today, December 17th, is “Free Shipping Day.”

Free Shipping Day represents the last possible 24-hour period when online shoppers can place their orders with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. And on this one day online shopping event, participating merchants a part of Free Shipping Day offer free shipping to their customers.

Luke Knowles and his wife Maisie, creators of FreeShipping.org, hatched the idea for Free Shipping Day just two weeks before the first inaugural event last December. During last year’s event, Free Shipping Day attracted more than 250 merchants and the FreeShippingDay.com website saw more than 250,000 hits in a ten day period, including 105,000 on the actual day itself – it also attracted regional and national media outlets (including Woman’s Day, Smart Money, Oprah.com and numerous newspapers and TV stations) covering the event. Given these statistics, it’s easy to see why Luke Knowles believes that “Free Shipping Day” will become a part of holiday shopping vocabulary within the next few years (like “CyberMonday”).

Curious about holiday shipping deadlines for online retailers guaranteeing purchases to arrive before Christmas? Click here to see the list of online merchants and their associated shipping deadlines, even those for rushed shipments shipped after December 17th.

And if you’re not a participating merchant this year, write this event down in your calendar for next year and sign-up to be a participating merchant. With all the buzz that this event is receiving, it may be worth your while to be involved.

Cybershop till you drop and enjoy the discounts.

Photo courtesy of FreeShippingDay.com.