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Amazon.co.uk is predicting that the busiest day for online shopping in the UK, often referred to as Cyber Monday, will fall on Monday December 2, with sales peaking at 6pm, triggered by post-work Christmas shoppers.
On Cyber Monday 2012 which fell on December 3 last year, Amazon.co.uk saw more than 3.5 million items ordered on the site, at a rate of around 41 items per second. That meant that a delivery lorry packed with Cyber Monday orders left one of Amazon’s eight UK fulfillment centres every two minutes and 10 seconds.
To meet customer demand, Amazon is hiring more than 15,000 people across the UK for seasonal positions in its fulfilment and customer service centres, with 800 temporary associates moving into permanent roles at fulfilment centres before the end of the year.
“The expected peak in sales at 6pm on Cyber Monday is interesting as traditionally sales have spiked later in the evening. In fact, in 2011, sales peaked at 9.20pm,” commented Xavier Garambois, vice president of EU Retail at Amazon.
“The earlier rush indicates that people will be using their commute to get a head-start on their shopping or logging on as soon as they get home, so they can relax in the knowledge that their Christmas shopping is done.”
Whilst Cyber Monday is the biggest single day for online sales, Black Friday Deals Week is expected to be Amazon.co.uk’s biggest week to date this year, when it launches on Monday November 25.
Now in its fourth year, the week of high discount deals was first introduced to the UK by Amazon in 2010. Initially an American phenomenon, ‘Black Friday’ is a day of massive savings from retailers which takes place just after Thanksgiving, and heralds the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US.
This Black Friday Deals Week, shoppers can benefit from over 2,000 deals on Christmas gifts – more than twice the number available in 2012 – saving customers millions of pounds.
Offers at Amazon.co.uk during Black Friday Deals Week will be ‘Lightning Deals’ with a limited quantity of a product being offered at a discount for a limited period of time.
“Since we started Black Friday Deals Week in the UK, the concept has really caught on and is now a much anticipated event in the UK shopping calendar,” said Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk.
“In 2012 we offered millions of pounds off more than 1,000 deals including high-spec coffee machines, signed CDs and Kindle Fire devices. This year, we’ll be releasing over twice as many deals, to make it easy for customers to save money on this year’s must-have gifts.”
