Amazon enters Black Friday race earlier than ever

Wednesday, November 8, 2017 - 09:34 by Simon Crisp

Although Black Friday is still weeks away, e-commerce giant, Amazon, has jumped the gun and begun offering deals on a variety of items via its US site in anticipation of the amount of attention the event itself will generate.

Savings of up to a third are available on some items, according to the Daily Mail, although at the time of writing it has yet to launch its Black Friday deals for customers in the UK.

Black Friday has become one of the busiest shopping days of the year over the past half-decade. While 2016 saw smaller crowds than expected on the high street, there was a huge impact on the web, with billions of pounds spent via safe shopping online.

Amazon is a major beneficiary of this event, which comes just days before Cyber Monday and is usually seen as the true beginning of the festive shopping season.

Black Friday itself may run for 24 hours only, but by making offers available sooner rather than later, the firm is hoping to edge out its rivals and spread consumer spending out a little over the entirety of the month, rather than focusing it all on the 24th of November.

This may have practical benefits in its own right, as website crashes and sluggish performance caused by excessive traffic have hit a number of major retailers in recent years.

More deals will, doubtlessly, be announced in the coming days and weeks, while exclusive discounts on popular items may be held off until Black Friday itself. Consumers who do decide to stay in and carry out safe shopping online rather than braving the crush on the high street will surely be rewarded for doing so, especially if deals are going live sooner rather than later.