Black Friday 2014, scheduled for November 28, could be the biggest online shopping day the UK has ever experienced.
What has been a shopping experience in the UK spread in 2010 to the UK when Amazon offered Black Friday discounts to British buyers.
Last year, customers rushed to pick up special deals and flash promotions, especially at America’s largest retailer Walmart.
This year, Asda, John Lewis and Sainsbury’s and many others will offer discounts.
The term Black Friday was minted by the police department in Philadelphia after the day of sales just after Thanksgiving resulted in chaos on the roads as well as the shops.
Now, on to a good thing, retailers are jumping the gun. Amazon said it will begin its offers in advance, dubbing it Black Friday Deals Week, beginning Monday November 24.
Last year it had sales of over 4 million items just on Black Friday, a first in the company’s history. Flush with desire now, it will be offering special deals as well as flash promotions launched every 10 minutes.
It is also looking forward to “Cyber Monday”, December 1. Last year Amazon’s orders of 4.1 million on the day just outstripped the 4 million sold the previous Friday.
“Cyber Monday” is the day millions of people in the UK order Christmas gifts online. It is followed by “Manic Monday”, the second Monday of December, for those consumers who shop later.
Analysts are having difficulty predicting which of these days will be the busiest, but the period is crucial for retailers as the Christmas season accounts for more than 20% of the year’s purchases.
The trend for online shopping is becoming increasingly ingrained, after years of predictions. Technology is also accelerating the revolution with the use of smartphones and tablets for shopping.
Online traffic for John Lewis last year peaked between 7am and 8am on Black Friday, levels 14 times greater than it had ever experienced. The day broke the company’s records for a single day’s online trade.
Asda became the first major retailer to offer in-store only discounts on Black Friday last year. It said the reaction to the promotion was “phenomenal” with extraordinary sales figures. It sold a month’s worth of television in 45 minutes, 16,000 tablets in an hour, and 60% of its entire Black Friday stock was cleared out in two hours.
Queues started forming at 5am outside Asda and a man in Bristol was arrested after taking issue with the company’s restriction of just one television purchase per customer.
