Amazon has announced that itsold 86 items per second on Black Friday in the United Kingdom. Orders were up 40% this year and close to 7.4 million items were shipped out vs 5.5 million items in 2014.
“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,” said Christopher North, m.d. of Amazon.co.uk.
Some of the most popular items included its complete line of Fire tablets, including the entry level that was discounted to £34.99, the Fire TV Stick (£24.99) and the Fire Kids tablet (£69.99). Other popular deals included Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console bundles, Le Creuset cookware, Paco Rabanne fragrances and Star Wars toys.
Meanwhile in the US the e-commerce giant watched the entry level fire tablet fly out the door all holiday weekend — so much so, says receipts data firm InfoScout, that it was the top seller by units not only on Amazon.com but at Best Buy. The item is now on back order through mid-December. Amazon also confirmed in a press release that “The Kindle e-reader business continues to grow—customers bought hundreds of thousands of Kindle e-readers this weekend.”
The Seattle-based e-tailer also won the day in terms of internet buzz, generating more social media chatter than Target and Walmart combined, according to Adobe.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
