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Londoners set to spend £1.1bn online during Black Friday weekend

<p>Londoners are hunting for Black Friday bargains online</p> (PA Wire/PA Images)

Londoners are hunting for Black Friday bargains online

(PA Wire/PA Images)

Scores of online retailers are predicting their busiest ever Black Friday weekend, with Londoners set to spend a bumper £1.1 billion online on the shopping extravaganza.

Consumers are poised to take advantage of discounts, with huge pent-up demand owing to high street shops being closed for weeks and unable to open until next week when the lockdown eases.

The predicted spend online in the capital this weekend is 69.2% higher than a year earlier, according to figures from VoucherCodes.co.uk and Centre for Retail Research.

Angus Drummond, commercial director at VoucherCodes.co.uk, said: “Despite lockdown 2.0 drastically impacting how London will be shopping this Black Friday, it’s encouraging to see that Londoners are still the most poised in the country to bag themselves a bargain this Black Friday.”

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A number of companies are predicting booming digital trade for Black Friday. Telecoms giant Vodafone said it has gone bigger on deals this year, “so we do anticipate it being our busiest yet”.

Electricals retailer AO World is expecting to more than double the amount of TVs it sells during the Black Friday event, with customers being offered discounts of 30-35% off some sets.

Richard Lim, chief executive of consultancy Retail Economics, said: “This will be the biggest online Black Friday ever. The closure of non-essential retailers has necessitated a shift to online and many households have pulled forward their Christmas shopping to take advantage of these discounts.”

Across the UK consumers are set to spend a total of £7.5 billion over the Black Friday weekend – a 12.4% drop on 2019 due to store closures.

But online sales are forecast to increase by 52.9% to £5.8 billion this year.

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