Royal Mail today reveals the top ten areas where shoppers made the most online purchases over the Black Friday weekend this year.

Bargain hunters in East London top the list of the UK's most prolific shoppers in the UK's biggest cyber shopping event.

Black Friday, originally a one day promotional sales event, is now widely regarded as the start of the Christmas shopping season in the UK.

In the run up, a third (33%) of retail businesses in Britain said they felt optimistic about Black Friday this year.

Nick Landon, Managing Director of Royal Mail Parcels, 

We've looked at parcel delivery data across our huge network of delivery offices and it has revealed East London as the UK's Black Friday and Cyber Monday online shopping hotspot. We take the planning for the period between Black Friday and New Year's Day incredibly seriously and start planning for next year the moment the current one is over. This year, on top of the huge number of processing and delivery sites we already operate, we have opened an extra six dedicated parcel sort centres to handle the additional volume we expect to be carrying.

The top ten online shopping hotspots are based on analysis of parcels accepted into the Royal Mail network between 20November and 28November. Items were accepted from online retailers and ecommerce businesses for delivery via the Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48 services.

Online purchases made on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond will continue to be distributed by retailers and delivered by Royal Mail over the coming days.

During the Christmas period in 2016, Royal Mail handled a staggering 138 million packages. This year, Royal Mail has opened six dedicated parcel sort centres and recruited an additional 20,000 temporary staff to support its seasonal operation.

Top 10 UK hotspots:

    East London
    Kirkwall
    Llandrindod Wells
    Milton Keynes
    Lerwick, Shetland
    Truro
    Carlisle
    Inverness
    Dumfries
    Exeter

Top 5 Scotland hotspots:

    Kirkwall
    Lerwick, Shetland
    Inverness
    Dumfries
    Aberdeen

Top 5 Wales hotspots:

    Llandrindod Wells
    Llandudno
    Swansea
    Cardiff
    Newport

The findings are based on analysis of items accepted into the Royal Mail network between 20 November and 28 November and weighted against the number of delivery points*. Items have been accepted from business senders for delivery using Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48.

*The list excludes areas with fewer than 100,000 delivery points.