Major retailers are experiencing bumper sales over the weekend with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and discounts drawing in hordes of shoppers.

The weekend marked the beginning of Christmas shopping in earnest and results from big international retailers show growth compared with this time last year.

According to online marketplace experts at ChannelAdvisor retailers including Amazon and eBay experienced big lifts in UK trade. Results included:

• Google Shopping up 57.98% from the same time last year

• Amazon up 16.61%

• eBay up 6.97%

• CSE up 92.98%

• Paid search down -5.88%

The figures imply a good start to Christmas shopping for UK retailers generally, and with Small Business Saturday happening on 6 December independent shops will be hoping for more swift sales.

However, some industry experts issued a note of caution, particularly over IT problems leading to website black-outs.

Darryl Adie, managing director of ecommerce agency Ampersand, said: “IT staff have been working on problems over the weekend – but with higher traffic levels predicted, there could be a greater number of retailers whose websites struggle.

“Black Friday in the UK is a gimmick…that will attract attention and drive spikes in traffic. The secret is to prepare for these spikes by optimising IT throughout the year and not just for Christmas.”