Crowds of shoppers lined the high street before first light today as major stores and retailers were expecting a bumper day in the Christmas sales.

Queues formed outside Harrods and on Oxford Street in central London as early as 6am for the bank holiday clearances.

Department stores John Lewis and Harrods opened their doors for the first time since Christmas after staying closed on Boxing Day, and were expecting a massive boost in trade. John Lewis launched its online clearance at 5pm on Christmas Eve and saw sales rise by 42 per cent with more than four products sold every second.

The store also attracted a 25 per cent increase in visitors online on Christmas Day with sales going up by 45 per cent.

The most popular Christmas Day purchases included feather pillows, luxury white towels, napkin rings, LCD televisions and laptops. In Shropshire there were queues outside Next stores as the retailer opened its doors at 5am for its sale.

Debenhams and New Look in Telford Shopping Centre also opened their doors early. The Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres, in Shrewsbury, were expecting bumper crowds for the second day of big sales.

A spokesman said: “We opened up yesterday for our first day of Christmas sales, but it was relatively quiet in the shopping centres. We are expecting lots more people though the doors today and we have already had reports of people queuing outside a number of the shops, including Next, before they opened earlier this morning.”

Andy Bell, manager for Lakeland, in Mardol, said they were expecting one of their busiest days of the year at their kitchenware store with many items reduced to half price.

He said: “This is our first opening day after Christmas. In years gone by people have tended to start up at Next and then filter down to our shop. People have been saving up for the sales this year, in particular, because it was hard to get out before Christmas due to the weather.

“We are expecting it to be one of our busiest days with people looking to get out and spend their money.”