Black Friday on track to beat last year's sales

Barclaycard, which processes about £1 in every £3 spent using cards, said by 17:00 GMT, there were 23% more transactions than that point in 2020. And the firm said there was a 2.4% rise in the volume of payments compared with the same period on Black Friday 2019. Analysts PwC predict £8.7bn will be spent on Friday, twice the amount spent last year, during lockdown. It is also higher than the £7.8bn spent before the pandemic in 2019. The increase comes despite warnings to expect less generous discounts and some shortages.