Amazon on Black Friday

Image copyright PA Image caption consumers were in force on London's Oxford Street as usual, with stores employing extra security

On line store Amazon states it had its biggest sales time in the UK as shoppers hurried to get deals on Ebony Friday.

The united kingdom form of the internet site offered more than 7.4m things while other merchants had problems with internet sales because huge demand.

Retail analysts said internet based product sales had been approximated to possess passed £1bn about the same day for the first time.

The discount time started in the usa, typically kick-starting the xmas shopping period.

Argos verified it had skilled delays on its web site after "extremely large amounts of visits". John Lewis stated its website was down for a short while into the mid-day.

This past year's Ebony Friday saw consumers in the united kingdom battling over bargains in a few stores, leading some stores to engage additional safety staff within the week-end to avoid a repeat.

But experts said this present year many consumers had opted for the internet throughout the traditional.

Justin Opie, director of this UNITED KINGDOM's online retail association IMRG said: "the major difference is the industry had been so much more prepared since it was chaos last year. That has been harmful to clients and bad for the merchants so everything ended up being much smoother this time around."

The BBC's Adam Kirtley, who had been at Debenhams' leading shop on Oxford Street in London, said: "The doorways exposed at 8am and there was an extremely orderly trickle of people to arrive to bargain search. No queues, no hassle."

Many big shops have opted for a week long sales period this current year and IMRG predict figures will attain over £3bn by Monday - which retailers reference as Cyber Monday.

The initial two Mondays of December tend to be the busiest online shopping times, after browsing across week-end.

Retail analyst Nick Bubb added: "It looks as if Ebony Friday spending happens to be more disseminate this season plus weighted to on the web, but every indication is the fact that the combined event will likely to be larger than last year in general."