Black Friday Sale is a joint sales initiative by hundreds of online vendors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, inspired by the American Black Friday. The event was first launched on 28 November 2013: Over its 24-hour run, more than 1.2 million people visited the site, making it the single largest online shopping event in German speaking countries. Many leading online retailers such as Zalando, Disney Store, Saturn, Galeria Kaufhof, Deichmann, The Body Shop, Sony, Yves Rocher and Dell participated in the event in 2013.
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Reception
Once the Black Friday Sale started at 7 pm on 28 November 2013, more than 50.000 users simultaneously accessed the site, temporarily causing delays and server overloads. The overwhelming numbers of visitors also caused the servers of several online shops, such as the electronics store Saturn, to suffer significant downtime. Despite the technical problems, the first Black Friday Sale generated a significant turnover and was considered a notable success by online retailers and organizers alike.
Upcoming events
After successfully launching in 2013, and having successful 2014 & 2015, the Black Friday Sale is set to return on 25 November 2016. The organizers expect more than three million visitors. Once more, several hundred leading online vendors will be involved, among them Douglas Holding, HP, Sony, Tally Weijl and Weltbild. eBay and PayPal are also featured as official partners of the event.