£865k to be spent per minute on Friday 23 December

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Dec 20, 2016

With many Brits receiving their December pay cheques on 23 December, festive shopping is set to peak on the last Friday before Christmas. 10 million Brits are expected to spend £894 million in last minute gifts and groceries ahead of the big day.

This equates to £865,158 a minute, according to a new report commissioned by RetailMeNot, operator of VoucherCodes.co.uk, and conducted by the Centre for Retail Research. 

The UK will account for 25% of the total expenditure on Friday 23 December across Europe, with department stores, electronic retailers and clothing stores bracing for a shopping frenzy.  

The report reveals that 8.7 million Brits will be heading to the high streets and shopping centres to stock up on presents, food and drink, spending an impressive £734 million on the final finishing touches for their festive celebrations.

In contrast, 4.57 million Brits are planning to shop online, the majority of whom will be in London where delivery services are faster, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

Also, a proportion of Brits will be covering all bases by shopping both in store and online in order to get everything they need ahead of Christmas Day.

“Because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, Britain’s high streets with be especially busy on the Friday before the big day – especially as this is also the date many of us will get our December payslips,” says VoucherCodes.co.uk MD Claire Davenport.

“Shoppers should be prepared for very busy stores as our research predicts there will be 8.7 million British shoppers scouring the high-street for last minute presents on December 23rd.”

A separate online survey by YouGov in conjunction with VoucherCodes.co.uk reveals that almost one in ten Christmas shoppers will be making a last minute dash on Christmas Eve to finish buying their presents, with those in London most likely to do so, followed by residents in the East Midlands and the North East. 

Meanwhile 10% of Brits reveal they have left buying a Christmas gift for their partner to the very last minute, with 34% of men guilty of doing this, compared to 21% of women.