Maplin is expecting a 150% increase in sales this week compared to last year as Black Friday bargain hunters drive revenues. 

The electronics retailer is offering its customers a full week of sales with some prices slashed by more than 70%. To ensure high demands are met, Maplin has increased its stock levels by 200% on popular product ranges.

“Black Friday is now a key UK shopping date and is changing the way our customers plan their Christmas shopping,” said Oliver Meakin, CEO of Maplin.

“Following the success of our Black Friday promotion last year and based on customer feedback, we increased our range of offers and the number of products and are expecting a significant increase in online traffic. We have some incredible deals lined up as customers are using Black Friday to secure strong bargains ahead of the Christmas rush and we expect sales to be up 150% on last year by the end of Black Friday.”

Adult gadgets and children‘s toys are a main focus for the chain this year, in comparison to Dyson vacuum cleaners and heaters that were popular in 2014. 

Neil McGowan, Chief Technology Officer at Maplin, told Essential Retail that one of Maplin‘s key focus points ahead of this season has been on website loading times and the tuning of the production website. “Using NCC facilities and ensuring sufficient cloud scaling capacity for hardware is available”.

He also suggested that Maplin has “significantly increased hardware capacity” in order to support more than double the level of web traffic compared to last year.

“Our website did not crash last year and we experienced the biggest web day and hour of trading in Maplin’s history.

We have done a comprehensive performance test and tuning exercise. We are expecting records to be broken again this year.”

As consumer awareness of Black Friday has been heightened in the past year, Maplin is poised for higher demand and sales over this discounting period. 

Visa Europe reported its Black Friday predictions last week, stating that the company is anticipating £721m to be spent online and £1.19bn in store on Friday.