Amazon predicts busiest day for online shopping will be 2 December
Amazon is predicting that the busiest day for online shopping in the UK will fall on Monday 2 December this year, with sales peaking at 6pm boosted by post-work Christmas shoppers.
On Cyber Monday in 2012, Amazon.co.uk received more than 3.5 million items orders through its website, at a rate of around 41 items per second.
To meet customer demand this Christmas, Amazon is hiring more than 15,000 people across the UK for seasonal positions in its fulfilment and customer service centres, with 800 temporary workers moving into permanent roles at its UK fulfilment centres before the end of the year.
Xavier Garambois, vice president of EU retail at Amazon, said: “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.
Never Miss a Retail Update!“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 traditionally the biggest single day for online sales, Black Friday Deals Week is expected to be Amazon.co.uk’s biggest week of the year to date when it launches on Monday 25 November.
Now in its fourth year, the week of discount deals was first introduced to the UK by Amazon in 2010 after initially being an American phenomenon. In the US, ‘Black Friday’ takes place just after Thanksgiving and heralds the start of the Christmas shopping season .
Amazon said that this year’s Black Friday Deals Week will offer deals on over 2,000 Christmas gifts – more than twice the number available in 2012.
Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk, said:“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.
“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.”
