Early Black Friday spending has surged against last year in a welcome boost for under-pressure retailers, although slightly fewer shoppers hit the high street.

Online retailers have witnessed a particular jump in spending as many launched a raft of offers in order to entice shoppers on the busy shopping day.

Nationwide Building Society said that, as of 2pm on Friday, its customers had made 5.24 million transactions – a 12% increase on Black Friday last year.

It added that this represents an 18% increase on its average Friday activity.

Mark Nalder, director of payment strategy at Nationwide Building Society, said: “Due to the strong sales over the last couple of hours, this year’s Black Friday is in line with our expectation that this will be the busiest shopping day on record for our customers.

“However, it is important people continue to shop within their means and not buy items just because they are reduced.

“It will be interesting in the coming days and week to see how busy the returns departments at retailers are, as many experience buyer’s remorse after snapping up so many bargains.”

Elsewhere, buy-now-pay-later specialist Klarna reported an even larger increase in transactions for the day.

It said sales over the first 12 hours were up 26% against Black Friday last year, driven by a surge in activity in the early hours as shoppers competed for the best deals.

Klarna added that its early data showed Adidas Samba trainers were among the most popular items so far.

On the high street, footfall across UK retail destinations was a touch lower than Black Friday last year.

Data from MRI Software showed that footfall was down 0.5% for the Black Friday year-on-year, as of 1pm.

However, it was up 11.2% against Friday last week, as the shopping occasion drove more people to stores.

Shopping centres witnessed a particular boost, reporting a 17% increase on last Friday.

Jenni Matthews, marketing and insights director at MRI Software, said: “For many people, payday will have fallen today which may be the final payday before Christmas therefore today’s Black Friday sales will provide them with ample opportunity to grab some festive bargains, which again is positive news for retailers and leisure firms.”