Black Friday 2015 was Amazon.co.uk’s busiest day ever with more than 7.4 million items ordered

Rapid Yvonne·
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  • Black Friday 2015 surpassed all expectations with around 86 items sold per second
  • Black Friday 2015 beat the all-times sales record set on Black Friday 2014 when more than 5.5 million items were ordered
  • Amazon Marketplace sellers enjoy record sales as they participate in Black Friday Deals Week for the first time
  • The deals continue with Black Friday Refreshed offers running until 23:59 on Sunday 29th November

Amazon.co.uk had its busiest day ever on Black Friday (27th November, 2015). With hundreds of discounted products on offer, Amazon.co.uk sold more than 7.4 million items, at a rate of around 86 items per second.

In fact, at 9.10pm yesterday, Black Friday 2015 had already become Amazon.co.uk’s biggest day ever.

Black Friday 2015 surpasses the record sales day of Black Friday 2014, previously the busiest day ever. On Friday 28th November 2014, Amazon.co.uk sold more than 5.5 million items, at a rate of around 64 items per second.

Throughout Black Friday Deals Week 2015, which began at 00:00 on Monday 23rd November, Amazon.co.uk offered thousands of ‘Lightning Deals’ – products available at a discount, in limited quantities, for a short period of time – with new deals added every ten minutes.

Amazon.co.uk also offered ‘Deals of the Day’ – selected products on offer for one day, from 00:01 to 23:59, subject to availability.

With an average discount of more than 40% off current Amazon.co.uk prices, customers snapped up popular Christmas gifts including the new Fire tablet, available for just £34.99; Fire TV Stick, available for £24.99; and the Fire Kids Edition tablet, available for just £69.99. Other bestselling Black Friday deals on Amazon.co.uk included Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console bundles, Le Creuset cookware, Paco Rabanne fragrances and Star Wars toys. Shoppers can continue to enjoy deals with Black Friday Refreshed running until 23:59 on Sunday 29th November.

“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, Managing Director, Amazon.co.uk.

“The bargains are not over yet. There is still time to take advantage of the great savings with deals running throughout this weekend.”

Small and medium-sized businesses operating on Amazon Marketplace had a record Black Friday, selling millions of items. Many of these sellers use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), a service where Amazon stores, picks, packs and delivers items. The number of units dispatched on Black Friday through FBA was up by more than 70% year on year.

Hundreds of Marketplace sellers participated in Black Friday Deals Week for the first time, including Inside Out Toys, The Body Source and iQualTech whose bestselling deals included the Indoor LED Multicolour Fibre Optic Christmas Tree, the ProBreeze Compact Humidifier and iQualTech Wireless Bluetooth Speaker with Built-in Mic and Microphone Style Stand respectively.

“We knew that Black Friday Deals Week was going to be busy but we couldn’t have predicted just how amazing it has been,” said Julian Garner, Managing Director, Inside Out Toys.

“We’ve worked really hard to offer some great deals for customers and sales have been incredible, giving us a real lift as we head into what promises to be a busy Christmas period.”

Amazon Prime members, including customers enjoying a free Amazon Prime 30-day trial, enjoyed an exclusive 30-minute early access period to all Lightning Deals.

As well as the Black Friday Deals Week offers on Amazon.co.uk, selected deals were available through Prime Now, Amazon’s app that offers one-hour delivery to Prime customers. These deals were available to eligible addresses in London, Birmingham and Newcastle from 8am to midnight.

Amazon has been heavily investing in its UK infrastructure throughout 2015 to be ready for what is expected to be its biggest Christmas on record. This has included the opening of two new fulfilment centres in Dunstable and Doncaster. Amazon now employs more than 10,000 permanent employees in the UK.