Online retailers are getting into the holiday spirit, and many are using “Black Friday” as a much broader term than originally conceived by their brick-and-mortar brethren. Case in point: Amazon, which just launched a Black Friday Deals store that offers deals now through December 22nd.
Amazon is actually calling its initiative a “countdown to Black Friday.” It’s offering Prime members early access to over 30,000 Lightning Deals – and “all customers will find tens of thousands of deals on more of the items they want.”
Amazon also launched a curated Electronics Holiday Gift Guide and Gift Finder tool to take the guesswork out of shopping and make it easy to discover all of the right gifts, it says. “Customers can explore exciting new features like never-before-seen 3D imagery of hot gifts, editor’s picks, exclusive product reviews, unboxing videos, and gift recommendations, with new content uploaded regularly from trusted sources including Gawker, Tom’s Guide, and The Wirecutter.”
Retailers try to smooth out the holiday shopping season to ease the strain of having sales happen all at the last minute. Shipping carriers have also been working with large retailers to try and avoid spikes that overwhelm their networks that can lead to disappointed holiday shoppers, as has happened in prior years.
Amazon went so far as to launch Prime Day in July when it promised to provide more deals than it offered on the traditional holiday-shopping bargain day of Black Friday (“With more deals than Black Friday, members will enjoy thousands of deals from sought-after devices and tools to popular toys and pet supplies,” Amazon said of Prime Day).
Steve Shure, Vice President of Amazon Consumer Marketing, said in a press release on Monday, “Shoppers come to Amazon to discover the best deals on the best gifts and this year, we’re pulling out all of the stops. We’re giving Prime members early access to more than 30,000 Lightning Deals and for all customers, tens of thousands of great deals in the Black Friday Deals store. With incredible deals, fast delivery options, curated lists like our Electronics Holiday Gift Guide, gift recommendations, customer reviews and more, we’re making it easier than ever for customers to save time and money on their holiday shopping.”
You can visit the Black Friday countdown site at Amazon.com/blackfriday.
