Online seafood vendors are using Cyber Monday as a springboard to push sales through the holiday season.
Heading into what is for many their busiest time of the year, several online seafood sellers began offering big discounts on Black Friday and then again on the online-sale focused Cyber Monday.
Gifts of food are expected to rise by more than four percent in the United States this holiday season, according to Packaged Facts, and seafood retailers are hoping to take advantage of the growing demand for their products.
GetMaineLobster.com is touting 60 percent off its most popular seafood feasts, including Stuffed Maine Lobster Tail Dinner, live lobsters, and Maine lobster tails, on Cyber Monday.
Then, starting on 24 November, Portland, Maine-based GetMaineLobster began a “30 Days of Random Acts of Holiday Kindness” offering, in which the supplier pays for one random customer’s order daily.
“Paying for one lobster dinner per day is small in comparison to the many efforts of others trying to make the world a better place. However, this small effort can make big waves, and some boys from Maine are aiming to make the world a better place, one lobster dinner at a time,” Mark Murrell, chief curator of GetMaineLobster, wrote on the company’s website.
Murrell told SeafoodSource he expects Cyber Monday to be a “very busy day."
“Cyber Monday is a moving target,” Murrell said. “Last year, it was our best day ever and the year before, Tuesday was better than Monday.”
Rockville, Maryland-based Cameron’s Seafood is offering 10 percent off all orders for Cyber Monday. Plus, it recently rolled out lower nationwide shipping rates and is teasing customers with its seafood subscription service, which launches in December.
“Thirty-three percent of our customers are recurring, so it's natural that we provide their favorite foods on a set-it-and-forget-it basis,” Cameron Manesh, co-founder of Cameron’s Seafood, told SeafoodSource.
With the subscription service, customers create an a-la-carte order and can choose from receiving the same order recur automatically every 14, 30, or 60 days, and can cancel or change their order at any time without penalty, Manesh said.
“The average American eats only one-third of the recommended eight ounces of seafood per week, according to the USDA. And that means we’re missing out on all the nutritious stuff seafood has to offer,” Cameron’s said on its website. “We created our seafood subscription to help bridge this gap and make it easier and more convenient for you and your family to introduce fresh seafood into your diet.”
Cameron’s also dropped its nationwide shipping rates from USD 85 (EUR 75) to USD 35 (EUR 31) and added two-day air service.
“We achieved this from 20 percent month-over-month growth this year, which allowed us to renegotiate our FedEx agreement,” Manesh said.
But it is not only the online realm where seafood suppliers and retailers can take advantage on Cyber Monday.
The National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights and Analytics finds that an estimated 164 million Americans are planning to go shopping Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.
To that end, seafood and meat purveyor Omaha Steak is offering Cyber Monday specials both on its website and in its 60 brick-and-mortar locations. In-store, the chain is offering its Skillet Meals for USD 5.00 (EUR 4.41) each with a total purchase of more than USD 30 (EUR 26.47).
OmahaSteak.com will also offer several web-exclusive deals on Cyber Monday.
"Food gifts provide an occasion, a reason to celebrate, so we continue to see this trend grow year after year as people are spending more time with their friends and family," Todd Simon, senior vice president and family owner of the Omaha, Nebraska-based company, said in a statement to SeafoodSource.
Photo courtesy of GetMaineLobster.com
