Black Friday 'online sales rise by 12% from last year'
The retail industry's so-called "Black Friday" marketing campaign led to a 12% rise in online spending that day, say retail analysts IMRG.
They estimate that this led to a total of £1.23bn being spent online that day.
Taking the whole week, from Monday 21 November to Monday 28 November, online sales rose to an estimated £6.5bn.
IMRG said that more than before, spending had been spread over the entire week as retailers staggered the start of their sales promotions.
"Over the past few years Black Friday has consistently demonstrated a remarkable capacity for shifting in terms of size and scale," said Justin Opie, managing director at IMRG.
On Tuesday department store chain John Lewis reported record sales for last week of just under £200m, a rise of 6.5% on the same week last year.
"It was the biggest ever week in John Lewis's trading history, and also included our biggest ever day on Friday 25 November," said a John Lewis director Dino Rocos.
Black Friday is a marketing ploy of the retail industry, imported from the US in 2014.
That year there were fights among huge crowds of shoppers at some supermarkets and stores around the UK.
In response to those scenes, the annual discounting event has swiftly become a more emphatically-online event.
As a result there were no reports of frenzied shopping in shops and stores this year.
In fact it went wrong in central London when a power cut blacked out the Soho area during the evening.