LONDON (Bloomberg) — More UK consumers stepped out to shop and opened their wallets online this weekend at retailers including John Lewis Partnership Plc to take advantage of post- holiday discounting.

The number of customers at stores on December 26 increased by 19 percent, making it the busiest day on record, and 18 percent on December 27, Experian Plc said in an e-mail. Shoppers in Britain spent £132 million ($210 million) online on December 25 alone, a 29 percent increase from a year earlier, according to estimates by payment-processing company Retail Decisions.

Shoppers had to wait longer for discounting to start this year as retailers postponed and limited reductions ahead of Christmas, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP research. John Lewis's online clearance sales rose 23 percent in the three days starting on December 24. Marks & Spencer Group Plc, the UK's largest clothing retailer, began offering discounts of as much as 50 percent in its stores on December 27. Last year, the company had several clearance days starting in November to clear stock.

"Retailers are significantly more resilient than this time last year and had planned for an anticipated poor Christmas by cutting down on excess stock, squeezing their suppliers and reducing store overheads and staff costs," Jonathan De Mello, head of retail consultancy at Experian, said in an e-mail.

The surge in retail traffic was driven by more retailers opening their stores on December 26 than normally do on the holiday, including luxury department store Harrods Ltd., and the lack of deep discounting in the run up to Christmas, De Mello said.

"Last year a lot of stores were offering huge discounts on a bulk of products," Andrew Parkinson, general manager of the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, southern England, said by telephone. "We're not seeing that this year."

Retailers including Inditex SA's Zara clothing chain, House of Fraser Ltd. and billionaire Philip Green's Bhs and Topshop clothing outlets offered discounts of about 50 percent in London's Oxford Street shopping district starting on December 26.