Record rush for Black Friday begins - but will websites cope?

Retailers are preparing for a Black Friday frenzy, with British shoppers expected to spend a record £2bn in just 24 hours.

There have been days of discounting ahead of the main event as major brands battle for Christmas shoppers.

Once Cyber Monday draws to a close after the weekend, analysts predict an eye-watering £5.8bn will have been spent both online and on the high street.

Online shopping is again predicted to account for the majority of today's sales, in a move away from the ugly pushing and shoving seen in some stores over recent years.

Retailers will be hoping that their websites will cope under the strain of Black Friday, following a series of service outages last year which left bargain hunters frustrated.

John Lewis was one of the high-profile names in 2015 to suffer a service outage amid record traffic to its site.

Tesco, Boots, Boohoo and Argos also experienced problems.

This time around, John Lewis says it has taken action to ensure all its customers enjoy a smooth shopping experience, with the chain also laying on extra staff in its 48 stores.

However, some of the high street's biggest names will not be joining the Black Friday bonanza - including Ikea, Next and Asda, the supermarket which takes the credit for bringing the craze over from the US back in 2013.

British shoppers are expected to spend £2.3m a minute - despite warnings that discounts might not be offering the value they claim. 

It has also been suggested that bargains could be thinner on the ground for next year's event, with prices inevitably moving higher unless there is a dramatic recovery in sterling.

Retail consultancy Fitch said it expected foreign brands to have a particularly strong season in the UK this year, as many prepare to raise prices to account for the collapse in the value of the pound since the EU referendum.

It cited promised price rises from the likes of Apple and Microsoft, while a growing number of UK chains - Mothercare and Argos on Thursday alone - have also said prices are set to go up.

The problem for UK retailers is that the fall in the pound - up to 20% versus the dollar alone - has made the cost of importing goods more expensive.

Businesses face the choice of absorbing the increases or passing them on to protect profits.

The Bank of England predicts consumer price inflation will hit 2.7% next year - above the current level of wage growth.

Such a scenario would put a squeeze on household spending power and therefore the economy, which has relied on consumer spending for the bulk of its recent growth.