Black Friday: Argos site hits problems on first day of sales

The retailer was one of the first to start its Black Friday sales a week ahead of Black Friday, on 27 November

Argos launched discounts across 2000 products

Argos's website hit problems its first day of Black Friday sales, with users reporting slow running and problems accessing the site.

A holding page at the Argos address said "We're incredibly busy at the moment. We'll keep refreshing this page to give you access to 1000s of incredible deals. We should be back shortly. Thanks for your patience."

The retailer was one of the first to start its Black Friday sales a week ahead of Black Friday, on November 27.

Argos's 12 days of deals started with a 3 for 2 on toys for three days between November 20 and 22.

Argos launched discounts across 2000 products including toys, technology, TVs, video games, health and beauty and more. Offers included up to £300 on TVs, half price on home entertainment, save 60% on toys, jewellery and kitchen electricals and save 70% on headphones (all selected lines only).

Online stores face increasing pressure from sales events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Traditionally an in-store activity, Black Friday has now also become an online shopping phenomena.

The Argos website got 13.5 million hits last year, smashing previous records, and is expected to outdo that in 2015.

A spokewoman from Argos said: "We are extremely sorry for the temporary service issues our customers experienced on our website for just 15 minutes this afternoon. We have resolved the issue and our site is now up and running. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused."