Cyber Monday, nicknamed for the first Monday in December, and the busiest internet shopping day of the year, has made Amazon a very happy place. Amazon’s British arm sold more than three million items on that one day, making it their busiest single day ever.
E-Reader Craze
Their most popular item was the Kindle e-reader. As Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk, said:
“This year, Cyber Monday saw the most items ever ordered in a single day with Kindle being the stand-out product.”
Brick and Mortar Results
Regular brick-and-mortar stores are also breathing a sigh of relief, as they slashed prices to lure in Christmas shoppers with some good results last weekend. Last Saturday, over 1.5 million shoppers spent £180million in Central London, according to information from the New West End Company.
As Chief Executive Richard Dickinson from the New West End Company said,
“Based on past experience we were confident that despite the slow start to seasonal spending, shoppers would get the tills ringing over the next two weeks, but this weekend has exceeded expectations.”
While retailers have seen less-than-exciting sales up until now due to warmer weather in October and November, rising food prices, and the recession, they are starting to see more sales at this time.
Interestingly enough, the Kindle e-reader is outpacing everything else at the moment, as Amazon reports that they are selling 105 e-books for every 100 printed books.