‘Black Friday’ is a shopping tradition acknowledged initially by just the United States. It is the Friday directly after Thanksgiving and is unofficially regarded as the beginning of Christmas shopping season. During this day many physical stores, and increasingly ecommerce retailers, have offered great price discounts on their products exclusively on this day and usually throughout the weekend towards, what is now known as, ‘Cyber Monday’.
UK Ecommerce Websites Adopting US Deals
Due to it being focused around Thanksgiving, British retailers initially did not take part. However the opportunity to cash in on bargain hunters was too great to be missed and many companies operating in the UK started their own Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Amazon was one of the first to introduce Black Friday deals through their ecommerce website and marketplace, followed by Apple and Asda.
With the ecommerce market in general experiencing rapid growth year on year, it was expected that the UK Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales in the online arena will break records this year.
UK Shoppers Storm Ecommerce Websites
Around 112 million visits from UK shoppers were made to ecommerce sites during Cyber Monday 2012. This was an increase of 32% from last year. Amazon, eBay and Argos accounted for 30% of those visits and mobile websites also experienced a great influx of frenzied shoppers.
As an ecommerce retailer, businesses have to ensure their ecommerce solution is robust enough to handle a colossal amount of visitors within a short space of time. Slow loading speeds and errors in checkout processes are just an example of the problems that can cause potential customers to abandon an order.
Christmas shopping season is a highly lucrative time for e-tail and retail businesses, and therefore their websites should be suitably optimised in order to maximise sales.
Store Express Ecommerce Website Solutions
Store Express create custom made ecommerce website solutions for businesses looking to operate successfully online.
To find out more information call 0845 050 3500 or email: sales@storeexpress.co.uk