Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Amazon.co.uk had its busiest day ever on Black Friday (November 27), with more than 7.4 million items sold at a rate of around 86 items per second.
Black Friday 2015 beat the all-times sales record set on Black Friday 2014 for Amazon.co.uk, when more than 5.5 million items were sold at a rate of around 64 items per second.
Throughout Black Friday Deals Week 2015, which began at 00:00 on Monday November 23, Amazon.co.uk offered thousands of ‘Lightning Deals’ – products available at a discount, in limited quantities, for a short period of time – with new deals added every ten minutes.
Amazon.co.uk also offered ‘Deals of the Day’ – selected products on offer for one day, from 00:01 to 23:59, subject to availability. Bestselling included Le Creuset cookware, Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console bundles, Paco Rabanne fragrances and Star Wars toys.
Amazon.co.uk managing director Christopher North said: “Throughout the year, we have been investing in more distribution centres and hiring many more great people in anticipation of our biggest Christmas period ever and, in particular, our biggest ever Black Friday. We are delighted that millions of customers loved the deals on offer.”
Small and medium-sized businesses operating on Amazon Marketplace had a record Black Friday, selling millions of items. Many of these sellers use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), a service where Amazon stores, picks, packs and delivers items. The number of units dispatched on Black Friday through FBA was up by more than 70% year on year.
Hundreds of Marketplace sellers participated in Black Friday Deals Week for the first time, including Inside Out Toys, The Body Source and iQualTech whose bestselling deals included the Indoor LED Multicolour Fibre Optic Christmas Tree, the ProBreeze Compact Humidifier and iQualTech Wireless Bluetooth Speaker with Built-in Mic and Microphone Style Stand respectively.
Amazon has been heavily investing in its UK infrastructure throughout 2015 to be ready for what is expected to be its biggest Christmas on record. This has included the opening of two new fulfilment centres in Dunstable and Doncaster. Amazon now employs more than 10,000 permanent employees in the UK.
