"Despite a challenging economic backdrop, shoppers have made the most of the discounts on offer, with today's data following an encouraging Black Friday and strong weekend both online and in-store," its head Marc Pettican said.

Barclaycard Payments, which says it processes nearly 1 pound ($1.20) in every 3 pounds spent on credit and debit cards in the UK, said Black Friday payment transactions were up 3.59% year-on-year.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Jan Harvey)