Amazon has reported its busiest ever sales day on Black Friday as consumers rushed online to take advantage of exclusive deals.

Bestselling products included the Kindle Fire HDX range, discounted by £100, as well as the Dolce Gusto Mini Me Coffee Capsule Machine, Toy Story Ultimate Buzz Lightyear, diamond jewelery and men's watches.

More than 3,000 deals were launched across Amazon during Black Friday week.

The online marketplace sold more than 5.5m products at a rate of 64 items a second on Friday, according to figures released today.

The peak time for shopping on Amazon on Black Friday was 8.29am, the retailer said.

Last year, Amazon sold more than 4m items on Black Friday. However, on the following Monday - known as Cyber Monday - it smashed this record by selling 4.1m items at a rate of 47 a second.

This year, the e-commerce giant has predicted that Cyber Monday will beat its Black Friday sales record by some margin.

It has announced plans to offer hundreds of extra deals on Cyber Monday, which takes place on December 1. New offers will be released every 10 minutes.

Amazon predicts that the bestsellers on Monday are likely to be TomTom Sat Navs, Sennheiser Headphones, Harry Potter DVDs and ruby jewellery.

"Ever since we introduced Black Friday to the UK in 2010, sales have increased year-on-year but this year really has surpassed all of our expectations," said Xavier Garambois, vice president of EU retail at Amazon.

"The public's appetite for Black Friday has been bigger than ever, kicking off the Christmas shopping period in earnest and establishing Black Friday as a fixture on the UK Christmas shopping calendar."

The Black Friday phenomenon originated in the United Statesand has emerged as one of Britain's busiest shopping days of the year.

Black Friday – always the day after Thanksgiving – has been in operation in America since before the Second World War. It was a single day of big discounts, launched by east-coast retailers in an attempt to kick consumers off their holiday sofas and into the stores.