Leading UK retailer John Lewis has reported a 1,340 per cent increase in mobile traffic to its johnlewis.com website early morning last Friday – so-called Black Friday – compared with 2012. The figure was included in the company’s weekly trading update.

As commuters travelled to work between 7am and 8am, traffic peaked at a rate that was fourteen fold higher than last year.

In addition, last Friday saw mobile orders climb to more than three times the record for a single day.

And online orders were double the previous record for a single day.

All the extra activity was beneficial for the retailer’s topline: It generated total of £147 million across the whole week, which was a 18.4-per-cent increase year-on-year, and 31.4 per cent from the previous week.

Online revenue grew 35.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis. It was also 19.4 per cent higher than its previous best week.

Part of the explanation for John Lewis’ stellar performance was its offer of attractive deals on Black Friday which evidently drew in shoppers.

The retailer’s online director Mark Lewis said the online performance on Black Friday was  superseded by that on the following Sunday (1 December), which is expected to be stronger than Cyber Monday (2 December).