New research by Retail Economics and Klarna found more than a fifth of customers said they bought Christmas gifts during Black Friday in an effort to take advantage of widespread discounting.

The survey found customers, on average, spent £179 on gifts during Black Friday, which Retail Economics said was almost 40% of an average household Christmas budget.

The research estimated that customer spent £2.1bn overall on Christmas gifts during Black Friday, around 16% of the total festive spending during what is already a heavily discounted period.