Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Amazon.co.uk is gearing up for its busiest week of the year with the return of Black Friday Deals Week, which will feature more than 3,000 deals, offering millions of pounds worth of savings.
Falling on Friday November 28 this year, Black Friday will be closely followed by Cyber Monday on Monday December 1, which Amazon.co.uk predicts will be the busiest day ever for online shopping.
On Cyber Monday 2013, Amazon.co.uk saw more than 4.1 million items ordered at a rate of around 47 items per second, with sales peaking at 9.22pm. During Amazon.co.uk’s busiest 24-hour period in 2013, a delivery lorry left one of Amazon’s eight UK fulfilment centres on average, once every 1 minute and 33 seconds. The number of orders placed on the day beat the all-time sales record set just three days before on Black Friday 2013, when more than 4 million items were ordered.
This year, to meet the expected customer demand, Amazon.co.uk is hiring over 13,000 people across the UK for seasonal positions in its fulfilment and customer service centres, with an additional 1,000 permanent roles to be created in the coming months as well.
Amazon vice president of EU retail Xavier Garambois said: “Whilst Cyber Monday has always been our biggest single day for sales, the growing success of Black Friday illustrates that it has become a much-anticipated date as the nation prepares for the festive season. We first brought Black Friday to the UK in 2010 with 300 deals; now we are offering over 3,000 deals and for many, Black Friday marks the start of the Christmas shopping rush in the UK.”
Black Friday originates in America and comes the day after Thanksgiving when retailers offer massive savings, heralding the start of the Christmas shopping season. The number of products sold on Amazon.co.uk on Black Friday 2013 was over 160% higher than on Black Friday 2010 when the phenomenon was first introduced in the UK.
Amazon.co.uk managing director Christopher North said:”Black Friday took an incredible leap forward in 2013 with so many more customers taking advantage of the great deals on that day, resulting in sales of over 4 million items for the very first time in our history. This year, we are offering more deals and savings than ever before and we are expecting record numbers to benefit from Black Friday Deals Week.”
Black Friday Deals Week offers shoppers ‘Lightning Deals’ – a limited quantity of a discounted product available for a short period of time. This year, Amazon.co.uk will launch new deals every ten minutes with offers on everything from stocking fillers to fine jewellery. In previous years, the most popular Black Friday deals were snapped up in seconds.The most popular housewares deals in 2013 included a Nespresso coffee machine bundle and Le Creuset cookware.
