UK shoppers on Black Friday have been buying more items but spending less, credit card data suggests. Barclaycard, which processes half of all UK card payments, said that by 15:00 GMT it had seen 10% more transactions from a year earlier. However, the value of spending was down 12% on last year. Separate data suggested a continuing trend for Black Friday bargain hunting to be done online rather than on the High Street. Barclaycard said it had processed 1,087 transactions per second between 13:00 and 14:00 GMT, a record high. Due to the volume of traffic online some shoppers were 'locked out' and placed in online queues as sites struggled to manage the demand.Consumer groups have warned people to check whether deals are as good as they seem, saying many products are cheaper at other times of the year. In contrast there has been a continued rise in people taking part in 'Buy Nothing Day' which encourages people to shop less and live more.
