Black Friday Deals Week returns for a fourth year at Amazon.co.uk with more than 2,000 deals, saving customers millions of pounds

Luxembourg, 5th November 2013 – Amazon.co.uk predicts that the busiest day for online shopping in the UK, often referred to as Cyber Monday, will fall on Monday 2nd December this year, with post-work Christmas shoppers triggering a sales peak at 6pm.

On Cyber Monday 2012 (Monday 3rd December 2012), Amazon.co.uk saw more than 3.5 million items ordered on the site, at a rate of around 41 items per second. That meant that a delivery lorry packed with Cyber Monday orders left one of Amazon’s eight UK fulfillment centres every two minutes and 10 seconds.

To meet customer demand, Amazon is hiring more than 15,000 people across the UK for seasonal positions in its fulfilment and customer service centres this Christmas period, with 800 temporary associates moving into permanent roles at UK fulfilment centres before the end of the year.

“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,” commented Xavier Garambois, Vice President of EU Retail at Amazon. “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 the biggest single day for online sales, Black Friday Deals Week is expected to be Amazon.co.uk’s biggest week to date this year when it launches on Monday 25th November. Now in its fourth year, the week of high discount, limited time and quantity deals was first introduced to the UK by Amazon in 2010. Initially an American phenomenon, ‘Black Friday’ is a day of massive savings from retailers which takes place just after Thanksgiving, and heralds the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US.

This Black Friday Deals Week, shoppers can benefit from over 2,000 deals on Christmas gifts – more than twice the number available in 2012 - saving customers millions of pounds.

Offers at Amazon.co.uk during Black Friday Deals Week will be ‘Lightning Deals’ with a limited quantity of a product being offered at a discount for a limited period of time. In 2012, quickfire shoppers snapping up Kindle devices caused the biggest sales day ever for the Kindle Family. Sales of Kindle devices were more than three times higher than any other single day in the history of Amazon.co.uk.

“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,” said Christopher North, Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd. “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.”

Amazon.co.uk’s Black Friday Deals Week 2013 offers will be announced closer to the launch date. The most popular deals in 2012 were:

  • Kindle Fire - 23% off
  • GHD Pink Cherry Blossom Limited Edition Gold Series Classic Styler Hair Straightener Gift Set – 30% off
  • Harry Potter – The Complete 8-Film Blu-ray Collection – 35% off
  • Samsung Galaxy S 8GB Wi-Fi MP3 Player with 4.2 Inch Display – 46% off
  • 6 Month Subscription to LOVEFiLM- Unlimited Movies and TV Series – 67% off
  • Bosch TAS6515GB Tassimo Beverage Maker with LCD Display – 32% off

Customers should visit www.amazon.co.uk/blackfriday for more details.

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For further information and images, please contact The Red Consultancy:
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About Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk opened its virtual doors in October 1998 and strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavours to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.

Amazon.co.uk and other sellers offer millions of new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Baby, Books, Car & Motorbike, Clothing, DIY & Tools, DVD, Electronics & Photo, Grocery, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden, Jewellery, MP3, Music, Musical Instruments & DJ, Office, PC, Pet Supplies, Shoes, Software, Sports & Leisure, Toys & Games, Video Games and Watches.

Kindle is the world's bestselling e-reader family and Kindle Paperwhite is our most advanced e-reader. It features new display technology with higher contrast, the next generation built-in light, a faster processor, the latest touch technology, and exclusive new features designed from the ground up for readers. Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. The new Kindle Fire HDX features a stunning exclusive 7" or 8.9" HDX display, a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, 2x more memory, and 11 hours of battery life, as well as exclusive new features of Fire OS 3.0. The all-new Kindle Fire HD includes an HD display, high-performance processor and dual speakers at a breakthrough price.

Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business.

Amazon.co.uk is a trading name for Amazon EU S.à.r.l, Amazon Services Europe S.à.r.l and Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l. All three are wholly owned subsidiaries of global online retailer Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), located in Seattle, Washington. Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es, www.amazon.com.br, www.amazon.in, and www.amazon.com.mx. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

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