Amazon is kicking off the holidays a little early this year, offering so-called “Black Friday” prices starting as early as Saturday.
Many consider the official start of the holiday shopping season the day after Thanksgiving, but Amazon said it is rolling out deals a full 28 days before shoppers normally line up for a chance to get absurdly low prices on Christmas presents.
As part of the promotions, Amazon will be offering two “Deals of the Day” every day starting Nov. 1 until Dec. 22. Additionally, Amazon will be offering thousands of “Lightning Deals,” which are products that are available until the promotion period expires or when inventory disappears.
By getting ahead of Black Friday, Amazon is no doubt trying to lure customers to shop earlier and more often this season — rather than centralizing their purchases on a couple of the most popular shopping days, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Over the past couple of years, retailers have started extending sales events over an entire week, rather than one day. This is taking it one step further, by making promotions available all month. The approach may just work, however, since customers were burned last year after last-minute purchases didn’t arrive on time because of bad weather. Retailers are preparing early this year for any scenario, but it’s hard to keep promises when there’s so many variables.
“Starting in November, millions of holiday shoppers come to Amazon hunting for the best deals and that one perfect gift,” said Amazon Traffic VP Steve Shure, in a press release. This year, we will have more than 15,000 hand-selected, limited time promotions on hot products.”
Amazon also used the announcement to call attention to other recent roll-outs, including the ability to add products from Twitter to your Amazon Wish List and new perks for Amazon Prime members, which give them early access to low prices on two of its discount services: Lightning Deals and MyHabit.com.
