Amazon Brings Black Friday to the UK

Posted November 21, 2010 04:22 AM by Juan Calonge


Every year, towards the end of November, millions of shoppers in America take advantage of the massive savings offered by retailers around Black Friday, the discount shopping day that follows Thanksgiving. Now, Amazon.co.uk is bringing those incredible deals to the UK with "Black Friday Deals Week": five days of high-discount, limited-time, limited-quantity offers culminating on Friday, November 26. Offers on Amazon.co.uk will take the form of the Lightning Deals already known to blu-ray.com readers: a limited quantity of an item being offered at a discount for a short period of time. Once that quantity has been reached or the time limit elapses, the Lightning Deal will end. There will be more than 200 great deals available over the five-day period. "For many years, shoppers in the US have enjoyed massive savings on great products as a result of the 'Black Friday' phenomenon," said Brian McBride, Managing Director, Amazon.co.uk Ltd. "Amazon is always looking to offer exceptional value for money, especially in the run up to Christmas, and will replicate that activity for the benefit of all customers here in the UK. There will be some fantastic savings on must-have items." Black Friday signals the start of the Christmas shopping period in the US and it is reported that over $10bn was spent by shoppers in America on 'Black Friday' alone in 2009. "The deals will come thick and fast so customers are advised to check back regularly for significant discounts on items across all product categories," continued Brian McBride. Customers can keep track of all the deals by visiting the Amazon.co.uk Black Friday page, by following Amazon.co.uk on Twitter or by visiting its Facebook page. You can also use our own Blu-ray Deals tool to track deals from UK. Remember that Amazon.co.uk recently expanded free delivery to 17 European countries for orders over 25 UK pounds (see Blu-ray.com, October 11).
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News comments (17 comments)

Stu123

Nov 21, 2010

I wouldnt be surprised if i cant get on the site with it being too busy and then when i finally get on everything is sold.

Skrillex

Nov 21, 2010

Anybody know if Amazon.ca does this too?

24lakers

Nov 21, 2010

The best news i've heard all day. Amazon.UK is a great website- awesome prices!

Liberty.City

Nov 21, 2010

Thanks for letting us know, on there now ordering

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Fingers crossed for some awesome deals on box sets. Amazon UK prices are normally great anyway but they may just get even better! Hopefully the latest seasons of shows like Fringe, Smallville etc will see big reductions.

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Harry Lloyd

Nov 22, 2010

Hahahaha. Harry Potter 1-6 was just a UK deal, it was sold out before I could even click anything. Please spare us this bullshit, they're sitting in their offices and laughing at all the idiots waiting for the countdown to reach zero.

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gettodamoofies

Nov 22, 2010

^ Although I normally wouldn't take a negative approach on things I have to say these lightning deals on Amazon UK have been absolutely atrocious. I'm not sure who decided on the quantities but it is set up to be almost impossible to get them. I have bought many, many titles from Amazon US previously in the lightning deals including Black Friday and although you have to be quick (within the first 15-30 seconds generally, some times up to a minute depending on the title) you honestly have a very real chance to get one. That's presumably because they make a reasonable quantity available. I have tried to buy 5 separate items in the various lightning deals at Amazon UK today and have secured absolutely none. The clock counts down, hits zero, the add to basket button shows and you press it immediately and straight away it's sold out! It's impossible to be any faster. I'd be surprised if there are more than 50 copies of each available. Based on my experience with Amazon US I think their quantities must be far more reasonable and offer customers a real chance of getting the deals rather than simply making them waste their time. I have always rated Amazon UK highly (higher than Amazon US in fact), but their handling of these apparent deals seems quite poor.

Stu123

Nov 22, 2010

I was waiting beforehand i clicked as soon as it came on screen for the take that cd for £1 they kept me in a queue for 1 hour counted it down and then said expired.So who bought them?! they can stick these deals where the sun dont shine.

Ighten

Nov 22, 2010

Got the HP for 13£ .. not bad

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gettodamoofies

Nov 22, 2010

^ Count yourself lucky. I couldn't have been faster if I had actually written a script to automate the process. 0/5 deals today. Nothing like the Amazon US lightning deals. Extremely frustrating for very loyal customers of which I am one (hell, see my first comment in this news post - 6th one down). Amazon US gives you a real chance as long as you're there when the deal appears. I've scored about 50 lightning deals in the US in the past two years including about 10 last Black Friday sale. On the other hand it appears with Amazon UK it is blind stupid luck as to whether you get one if you're there when the deal goes live.

ToTheBaseLine

Nov 22, 2010

^ i agree. i was waiting for the CDs this morning - they come i press add to basket - checkout and they're gone - sold out in literally 1 second!!! i reckon there were 100 copies tops - clearly just a marketing ploy. also - even though i know Black Friday is an Amercian holiday, if Amazon want to bring it to the UK they should do it properly - apart from the lightening deals there are no amazing offers as there are in the US.

The next one i'm going to try to go for is the House boxset - but i dont hold much hope. must be tiny quantities - if you compare with USA - the current lightening deal "men who stare at goats" is a great price and only 33% claimed - must me a reasonable quantity.

If its impossible to get a deal on monday.....it'll be nion imposible on friday...

ChrisDilke

Nov 22, 2010

Not only are today's deals generally poor, but they seem to be giving the site problems. I haven't tried to buy anything today, but I noticed that at 2.00pm today, when Just Dance for Wii went on offer for £9.99, two minutes passed and 0% of copies had been claimed. I then hit refresh, it stalled whilst re-loading the offers, and then when they reappeared, the game had completely sold out. Maybe it's just me and my internet server, but it definitely doesn't seem to be working properly.

Stu123

Nov 22, 2010

I clicked on a deal as soon as it came up, it then asked me to log in and i thought oh no queue im going to get it .It took me back to the homepage there was nothing in my basket and the deals wouldnt load.This is a total con and fix i thought Amazon were better than to run something so rubbish.Theyre treating us badly ,I've emailed them to tell them where they can put there lightening deals.

ChrisDilke

Nov 22, 2010

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332094/Amazons-Black-Friday-disaster-Customer-fury-bargains-disappear-seconds.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

It's made the news. And I think Anne Robinson and the Watchdog team are going to have quite a bit to say about it on this week's show.

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gettodamoofies

Nov 22, 2010

Just to illustrate a point - I've had no problems securing The Men Who Stare at Goats, Live Free or Die Hard and Prince of Persia. So that's 3 for 3 I've got in the US with absolutely no problem whatsoever because I was there the second it became available. Amazon UK on the other hand is a different story with me 0/5 doing exactly the same thing.

mdclifford82

Nov 25, 2010

Well gotta say I had no problems - just bagged myself Fringe season 2 for £23 with P&P! Less than half price. Whoo-hoo! Was annoyed as missed it yesterday but spotted same deal was on tonight - didnt realised they repeated the deals!