Amazon to double Black Friday deals

Amazon's 2016 Black Friday promotion is set to double the number of deals on offer compared to last year, stretching the promotion out for almost two weeks.

Black Friday last year was the e-commerce giant's busiest ever, reporting 40% more orders, with 7.4m items sold in total in the UK, equating to average sales of around 86 items per second. 

This year, starting on Monday (14th November), the promotion will run for almost two weeks (12 days) until Friday 25th November, instead of one, in response to customer feedback. Double the number of deals will be available, said Amazon, with new deals becoming available as often as every five minutes.

There will also be thousands of "Lightning Deals" introduced throughout the sale (products available at a discount, in limited quantities, for a limited time) and Amazon Prime members will have the benefit of an exclusive 30-minute head start to the deals.

The Guardian reported Amazon was more than doubling its workforce accordingly, bringing in 20,000 temporary seasonal workers for November and December. 

Doug Gurr, UK country manager for Amazon, said: “In response to positive customer feedback for Black Friday deals, we are introducing the Black Friday Sale – 12 days of fantastic deals on must-have gifts and products, saving our customers millions of pounds.

“We’re also thrilled to have over 1,000 small businesses featuring in our Black Friday sale, broadening the selection for our customers and enabling those businesses to boost their sales in the run-up to Christmas.”

Civilised Saturday, introduced by bricks and mortar booksellers, will run for a second year on 26th November. Encouraged by the Booksellers Association, it was devised as the "antithesis to Black Friday", aiming to entice customers into store with prosecco and cake - and even a visit from Pierce Brosnan, in one case - rather than the "bonkers" slashing of prices. The BA said at the time it, "helped to remind consumers that visiting a physical bookshop offers the chance to meet like-minded people, discover new books and more than anything, enjoy the pleasurable environment".

The Amazon Black Friday promotion typically offers the biggest discounts on TVs, phones, consoles, toys, gadgets and electricals. According to Amazon, the most popular deals in 2015 included the 7” Fire Tablet, Fire TV Stick, Fire Kids Edition Tablet, Sony Playstation 4 and Xbox One console bundles, Le Creuset cookware, Paco Rabanne fragrances and Star Wars toys.