More than £7.5billion is set to be blown over the next 48-hours, in what’s expected to be the biggest cyber Black Friday on record, according to retail figures.
It’s set to cost the economy a further £400million as home workers skive off to shop up to 70% off discounts across the web.
Sports Direct, Debenhams and Game are amongst retailers offering up to half price discounts today as the retail rush to Christmas commences.
And with ongoing lockdown restrictions, 16million Brits - three in 10 adults – will shop online, according to a report by Vouchercodes.co.uk.
Sales are expected to trigger a wave of wave of web meltdowns, as shoppers are pushed into virtual queues online.
It comes just a week after the PlayStation5 launch sent John Lewis, Tesco and the Game websites crashing.
Debenhams, Next, John Lewis, Boots, Ted Baker and Game have all crashed on previous Black Fridays.
Ross Davies, director of e-commerce consultants Strafe Creative, said: “Many companies do not have website capacities to meet demand. Websites react to large spikes in traffic and can crash.
“Crashed websites on a day when retailers hoped to make large sales damage sales and the companies' reputations.”
This year, spending peaks are not expected to be the usual morning and evening rush hours - but spread out through the day as workers shop online from home.
The £1.93bn spree on Friday will easily beat Britain's £1.5billion daily online spending record, set on last year's Cyber Monday, the Monday after the Black Friday weekend.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: “Black Friday's online spending will see a massive increase on last year, due to most shops being closed.
“A lot of people are working from home and some will spend work time checking prices and making purchases on Black Friday.
“The cost to the economy adds up, even for an hour.”
Dean Hunter of HR consultancy Hunter Adams said: “Some employees will waste working hours shopping online.
Today's £1.93billion web blowout works out at £2.01m-a-minute over the 16 hours most people are awake, beating the previous record £1.56m-a-minute set on last year's Cyber Monday, the VoucherCodes study found.
Over the entire weekend, shoppers are expected to splash £7.5billion online and on the high street.
Amazon was one of the first to start its sales, having launched its deals one month ago.
However, chains such as Next and B&M Bargains have bowed out of the discounts after a tumultuous year.
Research by e-commerce platform EKM has projected that online Black Friday sales will be 53% higher this year.
However, analysts at EY said that sales will be heavily impacted by lockdown restrictions.
Silvia Rindone, EY UK & Ireland retail partner, said: "Once a big event for the retail industry, the reality is that Black Friday's significance has diminished.
"This year, retailers have brought offers forward due to the national restrictions put in place earlier this month so it's unlikely there will be significant new discounts this week.
"Now, retailers need to look beyond festive deals in order to aim for recovery and a positive start to 2021.
"What would have been a 10-year transition from physical to online sales has happened in less than a year, and retailers need to understand and adapt to likely permanent shifts in consumer behaviour."
