BLACK Friday sales next Friday are expected to be about 20 per cent down on last year, as the coronavirus takes its toll.

The Nationwide Building Society says more shoppers are now buying online as a result of the pandemic and the resulting shop closures.

Nevertheless, it says many shoppers are planning to delay buying this year until shops can re-open again once the second lockdown comes to an end.

With Black Friday falling on November 27, a few days before the lockdown is due to finish, it estimates that its members will spend £224 million on the day this year - compared to £247 million last year. That is a fall of about 20 per cent, or one fifth.

It will be the first time ever that there has been a year-on-year spending drop on what has become one of the biggest shopping events of the year since Black Friday started in the UK about a decade ago, the building society says.