Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Amazon.co.uk has announced that its Black Friday Sale will run for 10 days, from 00:00 on Friday November 16 until 23:59 on Sunday November 25, with ‘more offers than ever before’ on consumer electronics, home items, toys, games, fashion, jeweller and beauty products.
Amazon will offer ‘Deals of the Day’ everyday throughout the period, plus thousands of ‘Lightning Deals’ – products available at a discount, in limited quantities, for a short period of time – with new deals available as often as every five minutes.
There will be more ways to shop too, with a new AR View feature in the Amazon app, which uses augmented reality technology to allow customers to view selected products in their home before they decide to buy.
For eligible home items, customers point their smartphone at the space they want to view the item in, and a few seconds later, the product appears on screen as if in the room. Customers can then check the product from all angles and ensure it fits in the space.
Amazon’s ‘Home of Black Friday’ pop up experience will also return to London, with prize giveaways, workshops and VIP experiences and product sampling. The event will be held from November 22 to November 25 at 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, with doors open for 24 hours on Black Friday (which falls on November 23). Customers can also experience the new AR view functionality and the latest range of Amazon devices.
Workshops will range from cocktail masterclasses, jewellery and candle making sessions, beauty treatments, hair styling to cooking demonstrations.
Some of the brands showcasing deals, experiences or offering prize giveaways at the pop up experience include Whole Foods Market, Samsung, Le Creuset, Yankee Candle, Sennheiser, Philips Hue, Hotel Chocolat and Nescafe Dolce Gusto. Entry is open to everyone on a first come first served basis and is free of charge.
Doug Gurr, country manager of Amazon.co.uk, said: “We know many of our customers are starting to think about Christmas presents, parties and decorations at this time of year and we’re excited to offer great deals when shoppers need them most.
“We focus on making shopping as easy and enjoyable for the customer as possible, so we hope customers will enjoy the new AR View feature, which is perfect for kitting out the home before Christmas guests start arriving.”
Some of the most popular sale items from 2017 included the Echo Dot, Call of Duty WWII, Bad Dad’ by David Walliams, and Finish Lemon Dishwasher Tablets. Deals available in this year’s Black Friday Sale at Amazon.co.uk will be announced closer to the launch date.
Amazon Prime members will have an exclusive 30-minute early access period to all Lightning Deals. New for this Black Friday, Amazon Fashion will launch the Prime Wardrobe feature, exclusive to Amazon Prime members, which allows members to have their favourite fashion products delivered for no extra cost, try them on at home, and only pay for the items they decide to keep.
Amazon’s delivery service, Prime Now, will also offer special Black Friday deals to more than 30% of the UK population, which can be delivered in scheduled one- and two-hour delivery windows or within 60 minutes in selected postcodes.
Mobile shoppers can also find where their parcels are in seconds in the Amazon App, use camera search to quickly find the items they want by pointing at an item or barcode, and never miss a deal by setting Watch-a-Deal alerts.
This year, customers can also support their favourite charitable organisation every time they shop with Amazon, at no cost to them, through AmazonSmile. Amazon will donate a portion of eligible purchases made on smile.amazon.co.uk to each customer’s charity of their choice. Customers can choose from more than 10,000 charitable organisations around the UK.
Hundreds of small businesses and artisans selling on Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Handmade and Amazon Launchpad will also offer thousands of deals this Black Friday.
One example is Amazon Marketplace seller Shearer Candles: a family-run business which designs and manufactures its own range of candles at its Glasgow factory. Shearer Candles will be participating in Black Friday on Amazon for the third time this year.
The company’s marketing and product development manager Stephanie Barnet said: “Black Friday will help us grow our business at this crucial time of year, providing an important source of revenue for our small family-run business. The growth of e-commerce has helped us expand our retail stores and by taking part in Amazon’s Black Friday sale, we’re opening ourselves up to new customers who hopefully will repeat-buy with us in the coming year.”
