Retailers attracting consumers during Peak Week

The Telegraph recently reported that retailers across the U.K. are offering major discounts on items and launching engaging campaigns to help attract consumers to their stores, ecommerce and mcommerce sites.

For example, Amazon and Comet are offering U.K. consumers five consecutive days of discounts of up to 50 percent off items, while department stores and technology sellers are slashing prices on popular items such as Nintendo Wii consoles and Le Creuset cookware. The deals started earlier than usual this year, as more consumers are researching items online, comparing prices and hunting down the best deals before making purchases. Thus, the competition between retailers has increased.

The extreme holiday deals began November 21, with Amazon offering more than 5,000 items at high discounts to start the shopping season. Christopher North, managing director of Amazon U.K., said Amazon experienced huge sales during the busy shopping season in 2010, as many deals were available for a short time.

A spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium told the Telegraph that consumers' savvier shopping behaviours have forced retailers to add value to their seasonal promotions and prices. Online retailers, however, have an advantage, as they are able to launch one-day promotions and sales to grab more consumers, while physical stores cannot so easily deploy a short-term sale.