Amazon UK has said that Black Friday was the busiest day it has ever seen, with approximately 64 items sold per second. The figures, which included over 5.5 million goods sold in total at the website, came against a backdrop of scuffles in stores around the UK as customers fought to get great deals on products. Asda sold more than 8,000 televisions in the first hour of trading, after its branches opened at 8am.

Websites of various retailers including John Lewis, Argos and Tesco Direct struggled to handle a surge in traffic.

John Lewis, which offered online deals from midnight, said that between midnight and 6am, traffic was up 307% compared with Black Friday last year.

Today, online trading is expected to hit £452,000 with 25 million shoppers expected to head online for their Christmas shopping.