Britons look online for Black Friday bargains

LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - British retailers' websites, and to a lesser extent their stores, were awash with discounted goods on Friday as shoppers chased "Black Friday" deals in a spending spree that is expected to top last year's record level.

Shoppers were looking for bargains ahead of an expected rise in prices in 2017 as a weaker pound starts to push up the cost of imports, putting household finances under pressure.

Last year marked a change in the nature of the U.S.-imported event. It generated record revenue but was unexpectedly subdued in terms of store-based sales, with shoppers put off by bad weather and memories of chaos and scuffles in 2014.

This year, shoppers are expected to focus even more on online offers.

"We're expecting today to be our biggest sales day of the year," John Rogers, chief executive of electricals to toys retailer Argos told BBC radio.

"We've got off to a fantastic start already. Between 1200 and 0100 this morning we had over half a million visits to our website, which is up 50 percent year on year."

Mark Elliot of credit card provider MBNA told BBC radio that Friday "is going to be the biggest shopping day ever in British retail history."

UK retailers will be hoping the promotions kick-start Christmas trading, building on a strong October when cold weather and Halloween boosted sales. Many are planning to run Black Friday deals over several days.

UK consumer spending has held up since June's vote to leave the European Union. However, the Bank of England and many economists fear higher prices caused by the Brexit hit to the value of the pound and slower jobs growth will eat into households' spare income next year.

Wednesday's fiscal statement from finance minister Philip Hammond also did little to ease looming pressure on household budgets.

PwC, the accounting and consultancy firm, is forecasting revenue from Black Friday promotions to grow by 38 percent to 2.9 billion pounds.

Its research found 27 percent of British adults intend to make a Black Friday-related purchase over the weekend and on average expect to spend 203 pounds, with 77 percent of the survey's respondents planning online purchases, against only 17 percent setting their sights on in-store deals.

Researcher ShopperTrak forecasts Friday's in-store shopper numbers will be down by 2.8 percent year-on-year, also reflecting a raft of retailers, including Amazon, Argos, Dixons Carphone (Frankfurt: CWB.F - news) and Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) , extending Black Friday to up to two weeks of discounting.

That would be a second straight year of footfall decline - it was down 4.1 percent year-on-year in 2015. (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Mark Potter)