Retailers and shopping malls have reported "record-breaking" levels of trade as Boxing Day bargain hunters kicked off the post-Christmas sales.
Selfridges department stores claimed they had seen their biggest ever first hour of trading after opening four stores in England at 9am, with hourly takings expected to peak at £1.3 million today.
Sue West, Selfridges' director of operations, said: "Despite tube disruptions we've had a very strong start to our Boxing Day sale, with record sales in the first hour.
"Selfridges was the first department store to launch its sale on Boxing Day and attracts visitors from all over the world."
Brent Cross shopping centre in north-west London said that 10,000 had come through the doors within an hour of opening.
General manager Tom Nathan said: "The appetite has moved on from turkey and trimmings to some great bargains today.
"The pre-Christmas sales have not impacted on the excitement of the start of the main sales on Boxing Day at all and we had queues of over 500 people when we opened the doors this morning."
It was not just shops in the capital which reported brisk trading today.
At Cabot Circus shopping centre in Bristol, some shoppers had queued from 5am to get first choice in the early scramble for bargains.
Centre director Kevin Duffy said: "Cabot Circus has performed well over the festive season and it has been consistently strong - in the week leading up to Christmas we saw a 19% increase in shoppers visiting the centre compared to the same period last year.
"Here in the South West we're experiencing a very positive uptake.
"Shoppers arrived at Cabot Circus as early as 5am this morning, in anticipation of the Next and Harvey Nichols sales beginning.
"It's looking very busy out there as shoppers look to bag the best bargains."
Managers at the Liverpool One shopping centre said they were expecting an estimated 125,000 people to visit its stores today.
Estate director Chris Bliss said: "We're seeing a fantastic turnout today at Liverpool One. We have already seen a large number of people coming to Liverpool to do their Christmas shopping this year and the Boxing Day sales are the most anticipated sales of the year, bringing the shopaholics and bargain-hunters out.
"We're looking forward to seeing around 125,000 people through our stores today."
The mall, which opened in 2008 following a £1 billion revamp of Liverpool city centre, said it had seen almost 950,000 people visit in the week leading up to Christmas, an increase of 15.7% on last year.
At Birmingham's Bullring retail complex, which has attracted 1.3 million visitors in the last week, queues began to form as early as 2am.
More than 2,500 eager shoppers were waiting in St Martin's Walk by the time fashion chain Next opened its doors and the Bullring's branch of Selfridges saw an initial queue of around 1,000 people.
The 160-store centre estimated that 9,000 visitors had hit its shops by 9am.