Amazon Expecting Record Breaking Day On 'Cyber Monday'

Amazon UK has predicted that 1 December will be its biggest day ever for online retailing.

'Cyber Monday', the Monday following Black Friday – which falls on 28 November this year – has been a big day for the online retailing giant in recent years, and it expects the trend to continue strongly again this time around.

In 2013's Cyber Monday, which fell on 2 December, customers placed 4.1 million orders on Amazon.co.uk at about a rate of 47 items per second. Amazon also says that a delivery lorry left one of its eight depots every one minute and 33 seconds.

"While Cyber Monday has always been our biggest single day for sales, the growing success of Black Friday illustrates that it has become a much-anticipated date as the nation prepares for the festive season," commented Xavier Garambois, vice president of EU Retail at Amazon.

"We first brought Black Friday to the UK in 2010 with 300 deals; now we are offering over 3,000 deals and for many, Black Friday marks the start of the Christmas shopping rush in the UK."

Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd, added: "Black Friday took an incredible leap forward in 2013 with so many more customers taking advantage of the great deals on that day, resulting in sales of over 4 million items for the very first time in our history."

Amazon's UK based business is employing an additional 13,000 people across its warehouses and head offices to help meet the demand.