Black Friday: Retailers report strong sales

Black Friday 2016 has been judged a success with retailers and payment processing firms all reporting strong sales for the event.

Barclaycard reported a record number of transactions and major retailers including Argos and John Lewis say they experienced a surge in orders.

Now in its third year in the UK, Black Friday is a popular discount day event that started in the US.

Analysts said they expected Black Friday sales to top last year, when retailers amassed £1.9 billion in sales.

Read our recent blog post on ensuring your IT network is able to cope with network spikes and cyber risk on Black Friday.

Barclaycard, which handles about half of all debit and credit card transactions in the UK, said payments were six per cent higher than last year, with spending reaching £2.9 billion.

"The Black Friday promotions at the end of November are the start of a longer, more drawn-out peak season, which begins with most of the activity online and then moves in-store as we get closer and closer to Christmas day," said Richard Jenkings, data analyst at credit reference agency Experian.

The event was just as popular in the US, with online sales hitting a record $3.34 billion, a 22 per cent increase from 2015, according to Adobe Digital Index.

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