Black Friday sales surpass Cyber Monday figures in Britain

Online retailers were preparing to get their fair share of sales with Cyber Monday deals, but they were surprised to discover that Black Friday had enticed a large number of online shoppers.

British shoppers spent at estimated £810m on Friday, which is much higher than the predicted figure of £650m for Cyber Monday.  This implies that Boxing Day sales may not be the biggest of the year once store sales are added to the figures.

Online shopping tracker, Postcode Anywhere, stated that around 267370 orders had been on the log by 6pm on Monday, which is an increase on the previous year, but well behind the figure of 404835 at the same time on Black Friday.  They stated that most shoppers went online in the early hours of the morning to secure bargains.  It appears that because the deals were maintained over the payday weekend, most shoppers had already spent all their spare cash by the time Cyber Monday came round.

Cyber Monday appears to have lost some of its potency and irrespective of the predicted £650m which was spent on that day, click and collect services and shorter delivery times are allowing shoppers to leave their orders to the last minute.

Amazon introduced Black Friday in the UK during 2010 and it is stated that its shipping record of 4.1 million products which was set on Cyber Monday last year has been surpassed by its Black Friday 2014 5.5 million product orders.

Amazon’s customer ‘wishlists’ offer the group a snapshot of what people would like to buy.  At present, the Barbie Endless Curls doll, Lego Star Wars and Disney Frozen ice skating Anna and Elsa dolls are some of the toys on the most wanted lists.

Its ‘fulfillment centers’ will only close on Christmas and New Year and the company starts its planning for next Christmas on December 27.

The huge spending spree may be confirmed by John Lewis on Tuesday when it provides its newest Christmas update.  It is predicted that the company’s sales will have increased by 20% in the week up to Saturday and this can be attributed to shoppers flocking to buy discounted televisions and tablets.

It is predicted that the store’s weekly sales may exceed £175m, which is an increase on its Christmas week last year when it reached £164m.

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