Amazon gears up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Amazon.co.uk is gearing up for its busiest week of the year with the return of Black Friday Deals Week this month, which will feature more than 3,000 deals.
Falling on 28 November this year, Black Friday will be closely followed by Cyber Monday on 1 December, which is predicted to be Amazon.co.uk’s 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. In addition, 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.
To meet the expected demand this year, Amazon 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.
Xavier Garambois, vice president of EU retail at Amazon, 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.”
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.
Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk, added: “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.”
