Marks & Spencer has continued its second one-day pre-Christmas sale into Friday for online customers after website problems frustrated many shoppers. M&S launched the sale on Thursday, discounting 20 per cent of thousands of products for the second time in three weeks. The sale includes many seasonal clothing, food, homeware and gifts. However, the website was down for several hours during the middle of the day, and transactions were very slow at other times.

The site offered an apology to customers, and is now advising: "For all online customers who may have had problems shopping online Thursday 2 December, we've extended our Christmas Spectacular Offers exclusively online until 2pm Friday 3 December."