British bargain-hunters shun the high street to do their Black Friday shopping on line – with retailers reporting 50 per cent rise in web sales on last year

HIGH Streets and shopping centres have been left deserted as Black Friday bargain hunters head online to search the sales.

Security staff were hired and festival-style fences put up as shops opened their doors early expecting the crowds of frantic shoppers seen in 2014 - but only a handful showed up.

Major retailers have slashed their prices to entice customers to part with their cash on what is set to be the biggest shopping weekend of the year - but its all happening online.

This morning images of ghost town shopping centres offered a stark comparison with scenes from 2014 when swarms of people headed to shops and brawls broke out over cut-price televisions.

Instead retailers have reported a dramatic increase in online sales.

It has been predicted Brits will spend £1.96billion, £1billion of which will be online - up 16 per cent from last year.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme John Rogers, chief executive of Argos, said: "The first hour of trading on our website which was between midnight and one o'clock today  saw over 500,000 visits to the website, up 50 per cent year-on-year."

John Lewis has reported a sales spike between 8am and 8.30am with five online orders being taken every second.

Tesco, which began offering items at Black Friday prices on Monday, has already had more than five million visitors to its website this week - a 40 per cent increase.

Have you spotted any good deals, shocking rip-offs or large crowds? Get in touch by emailing emma.lake@the-sun.co.uk or calling 02077824360

Meanwhile Very.co.uk has seen traffic to its website increase by 53 per cent year-on-year and Currys PC World reported record orders - 40 per cent up on last year.

Carphone Warehouse said mobile phone orders were up 480per cent compared to the same time last week.

The pressure has already proved too much for some websites.

Gaming retailer GAME left customers waiting at the checkout yesterday evening as the website appeared to crash when shoppers reached the checkout.

A spokesperson said: "We’re aware that there has been an issue with the checkout page of the website.

"The GAME website is now back up to speed with plenty of amazing Black Friday deals still available!"

Currys PC World customers also faced early technical glitches, with Twitter uses claiming they struggled to load the site as hordes of shoppers tried to log on.

One Twitter user posted: “Bit of a joke you being currys "pcworld" and your website crashing! Remind me never to go to you for a PC!”

Last year the websites of major retailers including Argos, Tesco, John Lewis and Boots all crashed at peak times and this year would-be splurgers have said the websites of New Look and River Island's websites have experienced problems.

There may not have been stampedes of crowds in stores but violence still broke out in Leeds where an off-duty police officer was stabbed while trying to stop a suspected shoplifter.

The post-Thanksgiving Black Friday tradition saw huge crowds of shoppers flooding stores in Tokyo, New York, South Africa and Sao Paulo.

But, just a handful of people were outside a large Tesco store in London, which was one of many to put up festival-style barriers in anticipation of large crowds before opening at 5am.

One Tesco employee said sores are expecting a rush at midday adding: "It won't be like two years ago, people can buy online and it lasts all weekend. We've got enough stock so it won't be a struggle like in previous years."

A happy shopper in Gravesend was pleased to have turned out early.

Keith Brown, 41, said: "I've got a 43" TV for my son, it's only a cheap one but it'll do a job. He'll love using it for Xbox games."

Another early riser was The Grand Tour's Jeremy Clarkson spotted carrying a television he had snapped up from electrical retailer Richer Sounds.

Despite a slow start customer numbers increased slightly at lunchtime, although not to the levels seen in previous years.

In the build up to Black Friday retailers including John Lewis, Tesco, Sainsbury's Argos and Amazon had been teasing customers with promises of slashed prices and pre-Christmas bargains.

But, consumer group Which? has already warned shoppers to "do your research" after finding that half of last year's deals were cheaper in the months before and after Black Friday.

In Northern Ireland one shopper posted a video to social media showing her peeling back Black Friday  price tags in a branch of Harvey Norman to discover the tablets she was looking at had been marked up.

The American Black Friday tradition has massively increased in popularity in the UK over last few years and 14milion Brits are predicted to join in - the majority heading online to spend their cash.

Explaining the move online, Pete Moorey, head of campaigns at Which? said: "More and more people are now doing research online before they buy.

"Actually, a lot of people hate the busy crowds and stress, some don't like the constant Christmas music and others believe they will get better deals online."

Some shoppers are saving even more by purchasing sale items through cashback sites - TopCashback.co.uk has said today is the biggest day of the year with £10,000 a minute being spent through the site.

Although second biggest site Quidco missed out after its website crashed just hours into sales.

But, with bargain hunters has come controversy and reports of brawls in the aisles in recent years may have put some off hunting out cut price goods.

For those who are heading out The Sun’s Consumer Editor Dan Jones has some useful tips for surviving the crowds and grabbing a good deal.

The Sun has put together its guide to this year's hottest deals so far.

Keep up to date with all the latest Black Friday 2016 bargains, deals and news by following our live blog