PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Some retailers and tech companies have already revealed the impact Black Friday is having on their businesses, despite the event only officially starting today.
Reports have emerged that online retail giant Amazon is seeing record levels of UK shoppers. As of mid-morning today (Friday), Amazon has seen customers in the UK buying 100,000 toys and 60,000 beauty items, all of which were purchased since the clock struck midnight on Thursday.
The report comes from CNBC, with Jonatan Gal, regional operations director at Amazon in the UK, telling the publication: "We’re certainly prepared for one of our busiest days.”
Gal said the company prepares all year long to ensure operations run smoothly when the shopping season kicks off. "We know our customer wants to get the product faster and faster."
Hosting provider UKFast has also seen impressive spikes in traffic. Across the company’s networks, which hosts thousands of eCommerce websites and booking platforms, web traffic has seen a massive 30% increase compared to Black Friday last year.
UKFast believes the stats may indicate a “significant shift” in buying habits as shoppers turn away from the potential carnage of high street sales in favour of bagging deals from the comfort of their own homes or on their lunch break.
Figures showed that £1.4bn was spent online in the UK, and $5bn in America, during Black Friday 2017 and 2018 looks set to smash that total, if early traffic statistics from UKFast are anything to go by.
UKFast prepares its online infrastructure each year to ensure that websites suffer from no loss of performance when traffic surges to unprecedented levels.
Speed is vital to eCommerce success, especially when 53% of mobile customers will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load, losing 22% of conversions.
Among the British hosting firm’s 5,000 clients are LateRooms.com, Foot Asylum, Cox and Cox, Better Bathrooms and online marketplace OnBuy.
UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones said: “Black Friday is an incredible opportunity for online retailers to offer their best deals, but preparation is key. There’s nothing more frustrating than spotting a product that you like at an amazing price on social media, clicking through to the website and getting stuck in a queue or on a website that’s too slow to load.
“Not having the proper infrastructure in place to cope with an influx of traffic is the number one mistake that retailers make at this time of year and there’s always someone that gets caught out.
“We’ve often been called in to save the day at the last minute, installing web acceleration tech or bolstering a solution to cope with increased demand on websites.”
How have your Black Friday sales gone? Email laura.barnes@futurenet.com and let us know.
PCR Awards Black Friday Sale
PCR has even got in on the action with our own special Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on tickets and tablets for the 2019 PCR Awards.
From now until 6pm on Cyber Monday (26th November) you can save over £300 on a table and nearly £40 on an individual ticket.
For any book enquiries contact Kate Smith, Events Customer Relations Executive, on +44 (0)20 7042 4222 or at kate.smith@futurenet.com.
