Online retail giant Amazon has announced it will be offering shopping deals a week early than the traditional Black Friday schedule, according to ZD Net, with discounted products becoming available today on Friday.

"Our customers are redefining Black Friday shopping. They want to stay home with family, enjoy some turkey and football and shop the hottest deals from their phone, tablet or PC," said Steve Shure, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for Amazon. "Starting November 21, we will add new deals as often as every 10 minutes, for eight days, including tech, toys, tools and more."

In line with the early start to the Black Friday sale, Amazon is adding "thousands" of limited-time offers via their "Lightning Deals", a sales promotion that is available the whole year. The retail company will also be serving up new deals "every ten minutes", as well as three "Deals of the Day" starting midnight on Thanksgiving, plus another three on Black Friday itself, reports USA Today.

Aside from the early Black Friday offers, Amazon shoppers can also expect Cyber Monday deals for a whole week, according to The Verge. This promo will start on December 1.

Amazon has also opened a new Instagram account plus a Snapchat account to allow customers to send gift ideas and grab special deals - exclusive bargains that are only available for a few seconds, reports CNET.

The move to integrate Instagram and Snapchat is seen as "Amazon's latest effort to grab the attention of shoppers glued to social networks on their smartphones and tablets," writes CNET's Donna Tam.

John Yurcisin, Amazon's Director of Social Media, says his company realizes the need to "keep up with consumers' constantly growing presence" on social networks.

"Instagram and Snapchat are the two of the fastest growing mobile social networks where people are engaging and interacting with each other in entirely new ways," he added.