Amazon Online Starts Black Friday Discount Sale Shopping Day

Black Friday is an American tradition that sees retailers offer huge discounts on the day after Thanksgiving to kick off the Christmas sales season. In recent years it has been embraced here too. Amazon’s move to extend the sale to a whole week comes as experts predict that increasing numbers will buy Christmas presents online this winter rather than going out to the shops. Traditional retailers have suffered a disastrous few months with unseasonably mild weather leading to much less demand for winter clothes. Sales in September fell by more than 2 per cent – the worst results since December 2008, when the banking crisis got under way.

#Amazon jumps the gun on High Street sales: Online retailer offers week of discounts in run up to Black Friday – one of the busiest shopping days of the year
#British shoppers will spend £6,000 every second this Black Friday
#Despite the name, deals have already begun as Amazon slashes prices
#£1,000 discount on some Canon cameras among raft of retailer’s deals
#iPhones, vacuum cleaners and electric toothbrushes among first offers
#Visa Europe says spending will hit £360,000 every minute on Friday
#Shops and malls will open early to contend with cut-price online deals
#Festive shoppers expected to part with £74bn in the lead up to Christmas
#Shoppers are expected to spend £1.7bn a day in last six weeks of the year
#Online sales are up 17% on last year, while shopping in stores is down 4%

On Friday, high street shops and malls will open early as they battle with online retailers slashing prices, with Visa Europe predicting that £360,000 will be spent every minute, or £6,000 a second, on its cards. John Lewis has promised that its Never Knowingly Undersold commitment will remain in place on Friday where possible, with stores opening their doors to hordes of shoppers at 8am. John Lewis director of online Mark Lewis said: ‘Black Friday has definitely become one of the key dates in the UK’s shopping calendar.