Retail company Tk Maxx say they are experiencing 'high demand' from customers wishing to place an order via their online store.

The retailer closed its Tk Maxx and Homesense stores across the country on March 19, and later stopped taking orders online on March 26.

After an absence of several weeks, the online store reopened on May 1 to take a limited amount of orders from customers between 9am and 11am, but was overwhelmed with demand from bargain hunters.

Since its digital return, Tk Maxx released a statement on May 10, and have urged shoppers to be patient.

The statement read: "The response to tkmaxx.com being live has been amazing, we're really grateful to everyone for their interest.

"We could never have imagined how many of you were waiting for us to be back up and running.

"The safety and well-being of our associates must be our guiding priority, so we still need to have the order limits in place to help us operate safely.

"We're really sorry that this is frustrating, and ask for your patience in these unprecedented times."

The retailer added: "We have been increasing the quantities daily and safely, and still when we open the site every day, we very quickly reach our order limit.

"Our customer service team is working remotely and we have drafted in additional people too; we are doing our best to keep up with your questions.

"Please forgive us if our respomses are a little slower than usual."

The company - which sells a range of clothing and homeware - say they have increased their health and safety measures to keep customers and staff safe throughout the pandemic.

Their delivery partner Hermes has also put in place a number of measures to help protect their customers and drivers.

Wherever possible, shoppers have been urged to opt to have orders delivered to a safe place and minimise contact with their courier partners.

Other retailers such as Next have restarted orders online, but have also placed a limit on the volume of requests they can take.