The promise of Boxing Day bargains lured hundreds of thousands of shoppers to West End shopping destinations yesterday.

Queues outside of Selfridges ensured a strong start to the sale. The retailer reported that 3,000 shoppers—the first wave of an anticipated quarter-million—passed through its doors during the first hour of its annual post-Christmas sale. They spent a record £1.5 million in the first 60 minutes of trading.

Harrods, Primark and Topshop also drew the crowds with deep discounts. But the biggest sales success story came from online.

Record numbers of shoppers visited UK retail websites on Boxing Day. Experian, the information services group, said retail websites received 107m visits on Christmas Day, a rise of 86% from 2011, and 113m visits on Boxing Day.

Don’t want to deal with the crush? We’ve taken the guesswork out of post-holiday shopping with our guide to the 100 best sales buys.

And you know Team ELLE loves to shop… see what we’ll be snapping up in the sales here.