Way too long Black Friday sales wipe off UK retailers' profits

Shoppers hunting bargains are gearing up for a Black Friday frenzy that this year will kick off earlier than ever, with retailers led by Amazon expected to run 12-day long Black Friday sales and special prices.

The number of orders is expected to hit a record of almost ten million on the day, reports ‘This is Money’.

However, many retailers in the UK are currently trying to resist heavy discounting as they struggle to keep pace with the aggressive price cuts of rivals is threatening fragile profits, highlights the ‘Mail on Sunday’, which quotes a senior retailer saying that this event poses risks ‘wiping out November’s profit altogether’ for some local retailers as customers head for stores and websites with the biggest discounts.

As a matter of fact, online king Amazon has revealed plans to extend its Black Friday sale to almost two weeks as retailers gear up for the biggest shopping period of the year. This year, the 12 days of pre-Christmas offers will have thousands of deals for customers and will begin at midnight on Monday, November 14 right up until Friday, November 25 - the official Black Friday date.

It’s worth recalling that last year, on Black Friday, Amazon sold more than 7.4 million items in the UK alone, a record for the company involving sales at a rate of 86 items a second, stressed Reuters. "In response to positive customer feedback for Black Friday deals, we are introducing The Black Friday Sale – 12 days of fantastic deals on must-have gifts and products, saving our customers millions of pounds,” said Amazon's UK country manager Doug Gurr.

"We're also thrilled to have over a thousand small businesses featuring in our Black Friday Sale, broadening the selection for our customers and enabling those businesses to boost their sales in the run up to Christmas," further added Gurr.