With most UK retailers already in full swing with their Black Friday promotions, Amazon UK has released a retrospective look at one of the busiest shopping days of the year, naming some of the most popular purchases across the site since 2010 – when the sale event was first introduced to the UK by Amazon.
It reveals the most popular Black Friday buys of all time include Amazon devices, handheld tech, games, toys, health and beauty products as well as film and music. In previous years, category best sellers include a kid-powered car, music speakers, bonsai tree and electric toothbrushes. Quirky category best-sellers across the site since Black Friday launched in the UK include a head massager, pet food maze and even an outdoor garden storage shed.
The fastest deliveries on Black Friday include a Prime Now delivery last year in Birmingham when a Phillips Electric Shaver was delivered in an incredible 19 minutes and 44 seconds!
The historic data shows that electronics and tech reign supreme for shoppers, with Amazon’s own devices ranking highly in the bestsellers. Over the past seven years, small but mighty gadgets, including TV media players and e-readers, as well as video games, DVDs and CDs, have taken the lead in the overall 10 best-sellers list across the site.
“We introduced Black Friday in the UK back in 2010 because we believed that customers would be excited by the prospect of getting incredible deals on great gifts just a handful of weeks before Christmas. The customer response in that first year confirmed that belief. Fast forward seven years and Black Friday is one of the biggest days in the shopping calendar not only here in the UK but also now in many countries around the world.”
– Doug Gurr, Amazon UK Country Manager
Over the years, there has been rapid growth in the number of small businesses on Amazon Marketplace joining in on Black Friday, with sellers expecting a record Black Friday this year, offering deep discounts on thousands of great gifts for friends and family throughout Amazon’s Black Friday Sale event.
Six featured small British businesses taking part in Amazon Black Friday 2017
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Shearer Candles
Established in 1897, Shearer Candles is a family-run business which designs and makes a selection of candles, candle holders and diffusers. They manufacture their range of scented, pillar and tealights candles in Glasgow and will be participating in Black Friday for the first time this year.
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Lavolio
Lavinia Davoilio founded her own business creating handcrafted, luxury Italian confectionary in 2014. She participated in Black Friday last year and saw a significant surge in sales. On the back of her success selling online she is about to open her first high-street store in London.
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Gamely
Hazel Reynolds, founder of Gamely, quit her job to launch her own business after she created a new family-based entertainment game called Randomise. Last year she sold more than 10,000 copies of her game during Black Friday and now employs three full-time staff to help her run her business.
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Luxelu
Gayle Hunter, Director and Founder at Luxelu, has grown a successful business selling her own brand of lifestyle and beauty products, from stationery to jewellery, homewares and more. She participated in The Black Friday Sale last year where she saw an uplift of 300% on her standard sales.
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One Retail Group
Joshua Stevens is CEO at One Retail Group, which he founded 5 years ago in his early 20s, building a portfolio of lifestyle, personal care and home appliance brands including Pro Breeze and The Body Source. One Retail Group specialises in giftable products such as pure and natural oils, aromatherapy diffusers and Himalayan salt lamps.
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iQualTech
Zamir Cajee, founder and CEO of iQualTech, has built his own brand of high-quality consumer electronics, which include ultra-bass wireless headphones and Bluetooth speakers. He exports his products to customers across the world including in the US, Japan and India, as well as across Europe.
Amazon Home of Black Friday pop up
To add to the excitement, for the first time since bringing Black Friday to the UK in 2010, Amazon is hosting a four- day ‘Home of Black Friday’ pop up experience in central London to celebrate the start of the Christmas shopping season and the UK’s biggest annual deals event.
The event is free and open to the public from 12:30pm to 7:30pm from today, Tuesday 21st to Friday 24th November. Customers will be invited to explore the best of Amazon’s Black Friday Sale and of Amazon Prime and join in the fun with games, creative workshops, expert gift advice, hundreds of prize giveaways, product demonstrations and special celebrity guest appearances.