Online surge for Black Friday as stores remain calm

Black Friday has seen a surge in online shopping as many consumers again chose to avoid a potential stampede for in-store bargains.

Early morning queues formed outside some UK outlets but there was no sign of the mayhem seen on the discount day in recent years.

Analysts expected British shoppers to spend a record £2bn in just 24 hours, but the forecast could be smashed because many retailers have reported better-than expected business.

Barclaycard, which processes almost half of the UK's card transactions, said the total spend was up 4% on last year by 5pm and the amount of transactions was up by 6%. The figure covers all payments, not just those to retailers.

Nationwide, Britain's biggest building society, said £115m was spent by its customers between midnight and 5.30pm, or £110,000 a minute, up 38% compared with a normal Friday.

There have been days of discounting ahead of the main event as major brands battle for Christmas shoppers.

Once Cyber Monday draws to a close after the weekend, analysts predict £5.8bn will have been spent online and on the high street.

Online shopping is again predicted to account for the majority of Friday's sales.

Department store John Lewis said it had seen stronger than expected online sales overnight and had been taking five orders every second.

Popular (NasdaqGS: BPOP - news) products included Sonos speakers and the Lego Simpsons house.

Argos said it saw its biggest trading hour ever between 12am and 1am when it had half a million visits to its website, up 50% year-on-year. Big sellers included games and games consoles.

:: Black Friday: What are your rights?

Retailers were hoping that their websites coped under the strain of Black Friday after some - such as John Lewis, Boots, Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) and Argos - reported problems in 2015.

Some of the high street's biggest names decided not to join the Black Friday bonanza - including Ikea, Next (Frankfurt: 779551 - news) and Asda, the supermarket which takes the credit for bringing the craze over from the US back in 2013.

British shoppers were expected to spend £2.3m a minute - despite warnings that discounts might not be offering the value they claim .

It has also been suggested that bargains could be thinner on the ground for next year's event, with prices inevitably moving higher unless there is a dramatic recovery in sterling.

Retail consultancy Fitch cited said price rises can be expected from the likes of Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) and Microsoft (Euronext: MSF.NX - news) , while a growing number of UK chains have also said prices are set to go up.

The problem for UK retailers is that the fall in the pound - up to 20% versus the dollar alone - has made the cost of importing goods more expensive.