Black Friday Deals Week also returns for a third year at Amazon.co.uk and is set to be the busiest shopping week of 2012 to date

Luxembourg – 5th November, 2012 – Amazon.co.uk is predicting that ‘Cyber Monday’ – the UK’s busiest online shopping day – will be Monday 3rd December. The highest volume of customer orders is expected to be placed at 9.20pm.

Last year on Cyber Monday, 5th December 2011, Amazon.co.uk received orders for more than 3 million items, a rate of around 35 items ordered per second over the 24 hour period. On average, at its peak, a delivery truck was leaving an Amazon UK fulfilment centre once every 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

“As people increasingly shop on mobile devices and benefit from fast broadband at home, we’re seeing a move towards customers buying their Christmas gifts later in the evening when they are at home relaxing,” said Christopher North, Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd. “Monday 3rd December could be the busiest day in the history of Amazon.co.uk, and we’re preparing for it by hiring more than 10,000 seasonal employees across our eight UK fulfilment centres.”

Whilst Monday 3rd December is set to be the biggest online shopping day, Amazon.co.uk is expecting its busiest week of the year to date during Black Friday Deals Week, which will return for a third year from Monday 19th November. Black Friday Deals Week is a week of high discount, limited time, limited quantity deals.

Every year, towards the end of November, millions of shoppers on the other side of the Atlantic take advantage of the massive savings offered by retailers around 'Black Friday', the discount shopping day that follows Thanksgiving in America. 'Black Friday' signals the start of the Christmas shopping period in the US and it was reported that over $52.4bn was spent by shoppers in America over 'Black Friday' weekend in 2011. Amazon brought ‘Black Friday Deals Week’ to the UK in 2010 and again in 2011.

“There were tens of thousands of items available during Black Friday Deals Week at Amazon.co.uk in 2011 and customers were quick to snap them up before the deals expired,” said Xavier Garambois, Vice President of EU Retail at Amazon. "This year we will have even more items and even more deals than ever before but we still expect them to sell-out quickly.”

Some of the most popular deals available during Black Friday Deals Week in 2011 included:

• Signed One Direction ‘Up All Night’ CD – 50% off
• Samsung 50” HD Television – 55% off
• Decleor Beauty Products – 40% off
• LOVEFiLM subscription – 70% off
• Canon PowerShot A3300 IS Digital Camera – 38% off

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

-ends-

Amazon.co.uk Ltd Press Office:
For more information please contact the Amazon.co.uk Ltd Press Office on 0208 636 9280 or email pressoffice@amazon.co.uk .

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 Paperwhite is our most-advanced e-reader with 62% more pixels and 25% higher contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, extra-long battery life, and a thin and light design.  The new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, now features new, improved fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD is our most advanced tablet, with a stunning customised high-definition display, exclusive Dolby audio with dual stereo speakers, high-end laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support and dual antennas/MIMO, enough storage for HD content, and the latest generation processor and graphics engine. The all-new Kindle Fire features a faster processor for 40% faster performance, twice the memory, and longer battery life.
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, and www.amazon.es. 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.