Britons were expected to spend £7.8 billion over the four-day period including Cyber Monday – seven per cent more than in last year’s sales, according to predictions by VoucherCodes and the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).

Figures suggest that Cyber Monday could overtake Black Friday by £7 million to become the biggest day for online and offline spending this year.

The UK spends more money during the Black Friday to Cyber Monday event than in any other weekend of the year, new figures from the Financial Conduct Authority, based on a billion bank transactions, show.

Britain’s online retailers won the battle for sales on Black Fridaywith overall spending up on a year ago despite a drop in the number of shoppers visiting stores.

The UK is expected to receive over a quarter of a billion parcels after spending billions over Black Friday and Christmas. To get everything sent, retailers need to work day and night.

According to insurance company Stavelyhead, the predicted online spend for the black Friday period was £7.4billion. £937,500 will be spent every minute and spending is 50% higher than Boxing Day! Amazon sells 86 items per second and £700 million will be spent before 9am, equating to 28% of sales.

How do retailers cope with the demand?

There will be 72,550 courier vehicles on the road. 225 million extra parcels will be delivered with an extra 49 thousand staff drafted in to cope with the demand. 81% of online Black Friday purchases include a home delivery service rather than collecting in person. A lorry has been known to leave one of Amazon’s warehouses every 1 minute 33 seconds during especially busy periods.

So a busy few days! Then there is no let up with the Christmas parcels starting to mount up. A fantastic time of year!