Consumer spending has soared on Black Friday, despite early signs shoppers had steered clear of the high street and some retailers launching their promotions well ahead of the annual shopping event.  

Spending was up 7pc on last year as of 5pm, according to data from Barclaycard, which processes almost half of Britain’s debit and credit card transactions.  

Many high street stalwarts slashed prices in the hope of drawing more shoppers through their doors, after sales fell at their sharpest rate since the financial crisis in September amid stagnant wages and rising inflation.  

Patrick O’Brien, a retail analyst at Globaldata, said some retailers had launched many of their discounts well in advance of today. 

He said: “There’s been a lack of urgency about the day itself. People have been making those purchases for at least a week and some of the best promotions have already been around for a while.”   

Retailers have been divided over how to deal with the annual ‘shopping holiday,’ which began in the US but has become a regular feature on Britain’s high streets in recent years.

Asda, one of the first major chains to launch Black Friday deals announced it would no longer participate in 2016 and declined to do so again this year.

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But Next, whose chief executive Lord Wolfson once branded Black Friday discounts “pointless”, has slashed some prices as much as 70pc this time around.

Retail analyst Bryan Roberts of TCC Global told The Daily Telegraph: “There’s nothing like the frenzied behaviour we’ve seen in previous years, with an increasing number of retailers ducking out of it.

But Mr Roberts suggested Black Friday is still a “huge deal” for electricals retailers such as Currys PC World owner Dixons Carphone and Argos, which face tough competition from online giant Amazon.

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Currys said orders for over-ear headphones were up 223pc, games consoles were up 158pc, and large TVs were up 44pc compared with last year.

E-commerce director Stuart Ramage said TVs had been “flying off the shelves” as shoppers “made the most of our stores being open early.”

Argos said its website attracted two million visitors in the four hours after its Black Friday deals were launched at 9pm on Thursday.

Steve Clayton, head of equity funds at Hargreaves Lansdown suggested the event had become “as much a problem as an opportunity”, as retailers struggled to cope logistically and slashed their margins to attract customers.  

He said: “If you don’t participate, all you know is that your competitors do, and you’ll lose sales to them. So you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”  

Finance firm MBNA estimated British shoppers would spend £5.5bn over the Black Friday weekend.