Cyber Monday will be 3rd December, says Amazon

Online retail giant Amazon is predicting that 'Cyber Monday', the UK's busiest online shopping day, will be Monday 3 December this year.

It also forecasting that the highest volume of customer orders will be placed at 9.20pm.

“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 3 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.”

Last year’s Cyber Monday, which fell on 5 December 2011, saw Amazon.co.uk receive orders for more than 3 million items, with around 35 items ordered per second over the 24 hour period.

Whilst Monday 3 December is set to be the biggest online shopping day, Amazon.co.uk is expecting its busiest week of the year during Black Friday Deals Week, which the retailer will run for a third year from Monday 19 November.

Every year, towards the end of November, shoppers in the US take advantage of the massive savings offered by retailers around 'Black Friday', the discount shopping day that follows Thanksgiving. 'Black Friday' signals the start of the Christmas shopping period in the US and it was reported that over $52.4 billion 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.”

Source : Retail Bulletin
www.retailbulletin.com