Officials from Amazon.co.uk have revealed that the company sold out of its allocations of the Wii console just seven minutes after opening pre-orders.
The British website of the successful American online retailer announced that it would begin taking pre-order sales of the Wii, at a price of £179.99 ($342), from November 21st. The company had elected to wait until it was provided full details of its stock allocation before allowing pre-orders.
“We expected a high number of people to visit the site today but the response was phenomenal. It is the fastest selling pre-order item we have ever encountered – even eclipsing Harry Potter and Coldplay,” said Amazon.co.uk’s console and video games manager, James Schall. “It is very rare that we sell out of any item, let alone in only seven minutes.”
No indication was given of how many consoles Amazon.co.uk had available for pre-order but the company has indicated that it expects to receive more stock when the console goes on general release in the UK and Europe on December 8th.
“There are a limited number of these consoles available and had we taken pre-orders before knowing our initial stock, we would have run the risk of not being able to fulfill the orders when the release date arrived,” said James Schall. “We would not want to let down our customers in that way - everyone who pre-ordered the item at Amazon.co.uk today will receive their Wii the moment that it is available.”
