Major retailers open early on Black Friday

Experian-IMRG believes internet spending on Black Friday will hit £1.07 billion, a 32% increase on last year’s £810 million – the first time that online retail sales in the United Kingdom will surpass £1 billion in one day. He added that the overall economic outlook remains positive for consumers and retailers, who will benefit from an additional shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as from low gas prices that will give consumers more ready money to spend. It forecast online spending would jump 32pc to £1.1bn.

“The pressure to buy online on Black Friday has clearly had an impact on concentration levels at work”, Tim Rollins, director at Stop Procrastinating.

“The traction we are observing on Jumia for Black Friday is unprecedented, with 100 times more traffic on the website than a year ago at the same time”, he said.

Asda is both a supermarket and a retail store, and previous year its electrical goods sales were high, but its core business sales numbers were dismal.

This year, some retailers – including Amazon, Argos, Marks & Spencer and Dixons Carphone – have stretched “Black Friday” discounts over several days.

Social media indicated stores across the country were quieter than past year and shoppers better behaved.

At the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London, trading was said to be brisk rather than frenzied.

Shaquille Simon, a 21 year-old McDonald’s manager, said he bought two televisions online from Tesco at midnight, before heading for Westfield early Friday.

He then headed to Westfield, where he picked up speakers and headphones.

About 135.8 million Americans are expected to shop in stores or online over the four-day weekend, according to the National Retail Federation, the largest USA retail trade organization.

Stores had taken extra precautions this year, after warnings from police that firms needed to ensure they had enough security staff on in case of any trouble.

Ebay is expecting nine million Britons to visit its website over Black Friday, John Lewis has promised to honour its Never Knowingly Undersold pledge and match competitor’s prices and Amazon.co.uk is promising significant bargains tomorrow after a week of early sales.

Bargain hunters found relatively little competition compared with previous years.

“It’s my first time doing it, I hope they do it more often”, he said as he waited for the doors to open in front of rows of signs advertising the sales. In part because many retailers touting online deal the same if not better than what you’d find in stores making it easier than ever to avoid the commotion completely.