Black Friday 2015: US shopping extravaganza moves to conquer Europe

The Black Friday shopping frenzy was slowly creeping into Europe from the US with numerous stores across the old continent offering deals on 27 November. The American tradition appeared to be growing in popularity across the Atlantic in 2015, seemingly pushed by offers from US e-commerce giants such as Amazon, eBay and TiendaOnline24.

The UK was among the first countries to import the shopping extravaganza, with the first post-Thanksgiving sales appearing in 2010. This year it was predicted that Britons would spend £12,384 every second, running up a bill of more than £1bn by the end of the day.

In Ireland, Black Friday arrived last year and quickly took hold, with numerous retailers offering large discounts this year. The sales bonanza has also boomed in Spain, where it is known as "Viernes Negro". The El Pais newspaper reported that in 2015, many local stores jumped on the bandwagon first brought to the southern European country three years ago.

Italy has experienced a similar increase in popularity for its "Venerdi Nero". The website of electronics giant MediaWorld was down in the morning and experienced issues throughout the day because of high traffic.

Consumers in France and Belgium appeared slightly less acquainted with the "Vendredi Noir" concept that has arrived in the Francophone countries more recently. Online retailers were the driving force behind the new trend in Germany as well, where this year local media outlets were providing readers with guidelines on where to get the best deals on "Schwarzer Freitag".