This year’s Black Friday is on track to be the “busiest ever” as shoppers shake off cost-of-living woes to make the most of festive deals, spending data has revealed.

Nationwide Building Society said that sales volumes on Friday show people have been making more purchases than this time last year.

By 2pm, customers had made 4.69 million transactions, which is 12% higher than a typical Friday and 4% more than Black Friday 2022.

The latest data also means spending is 12% more than the same day in 2021, Nationwide said.

Retailers have launched sales and shopping deals hoping to lure in shoppers with discounted prices in the run-up to Christmas.

Mark Nalder, director of payment strategy at Nationwide, said the morning’s purchase data “suggests that this year’s Black Friday is going to be the busiest one ever”.

“Black Friday continues to go from strength to strength today as shoppers carry on searching for bargains,” Mr Nalder added.

“We expect spending to remain strong throughout the rest of the day in what will be a welcome boost for retailers online and on the high street.”

Electricals chain Currys said sales of some of its tech products have more than doubled this month as it rolled out new deals.

Strong demand for games consoles saw sales jump by 131% in recent weeks, compared with average weekly sales over the previous six weeks, amid the launch of new video game Call of Duty – which it said was already a Black Friday bestseller.

Beauty tools have soared by 190%, coffee machines up by 105%, and air fryer sales up by 75% over the same period, Currys revealed.

Meanwhile, banking group Barclays revealed that the volume of purchases leading up to Black Friday was higher than this time last year, as retailers continue to launch sales earlier in the month.

Data from the firm, which processes nearly half of the UK’s credit and debit card transactions, showed spending volumes were up 1.4% in the week to Wednesday compared with the equivalent week last year.

Marc Pettican, the head of payments at Barclaycard, told the PA news agency: “Black Friday is no longer a single day… we start to see changes in behaviours throughout the whole month of November as retailers start to discount earlier.”

The sales season is also not just a “retail phenomenon”, with other industries including hospitality and travel taking advantage of increased demand.

“What we’ve been seeing more generally is people spending more on essential items than they are discretionary,” Mr Pettican told PA.

“In a world where you’ve got rising interest rates and inflation, I think people are definitely looking to get a bargain.”

Supermarkets like Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer have launched new savings on Black Friday across their food, clothing and homeware brands, while Amazon has deals across its website for a week.