“Got in as was there for “normal” shopping, got basket, then told by two female staff I couldn’t buy anything as it was black Friday?”.
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Experts say high street stores will have no choice but to try to shift unsold stock with a series of flash sales between now and Christmas.
Shoppers using the Argos website also experienced delays and consumers were confronted with a holding page saying “Oops…” “By starting “Cyber Monday” hours earlier on Sunday evening and quadrupling the number of Cyber Monday specials, we’re making it easier for customers to get ahead of the busiest online shopping day of the year and save on the best gifts”, Madeira added in a press statement released earlier this week.
Other retailers being singled out on social media for slow websites included the fashion hub Boohoo, Boots, River Island and Debenhams.
More online sales will actually ring up Monday than during Friday’s online shopping blitz, to the tune of $3 billion Monday, according to Adobe, which tracks online sales.
Retailers made cut-price deals available online from midnight and many shops changed their opening hours to offer customers more time to snap up discounted stock, ranging from televisions to toothbrushes.
“We’re really happy with how it’s going so far”.
Increased Black Friday deals on the internet appear to have kept many people away from coming to the stores in person. “Feedback from customers today has been very positive #justsaying”. According to new estimates by Experian, in conjunction with IMRG, the United Kingdom online retail sales are expected to hit £1.07bn on Black Friday, a 32% increase over £810m in 2014.
The company is predicting at least 250,000 orders by the end of the day with one TV being sold every six seconds and one games console every four seconds.
Asda has previously said it is not taking part in the Black Friday discount day but announced it was knocking 4p a litre off unleaded petrol for three days to take the price below £1 for the first time since 2009.
But the huge volume of traffic – Ebay is expecting nine million Britons to visit its website today – means that the websites of many retailers are struggling to cope.
Shopping centres and stores all across Glasgow reported a calm day in contrast to the scenes of chaos which were seen a year ago.
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During the survey, WalletHub analysts calculated the average discount that each retailer plans to offer on its deals. Cyber Monday is still Black Friday’s little brother – depending on how you count them, Friday’s real-world sales are about three times larger than Monday’s digital sales – but online shopping continues to soar in popularity.
