Shoppers will spend almost £55 million per hour on last minute Christmas Eve purchases, a new survey by Sainsbury‘s Bank has revealed.
With nearly 17.2 million people expecting to still be doing Christmas shopping on December 24th, the total amount that will be spent on this day is estimated at £1.3 billion.
This is an increase on last year, when £1 billion was spent on Christmas Eve, and could be even higher as 6 per cent of those interviewed did not know how much they expected to spend.
Of more than 2000 Sainsbury‘s Bank credit card holders interviewed, 36.3 per cent expected that they would not have finished their Christmas shopping by Christmas Eve, when 35 supermarkets will be open from midnight until 6pm to meet shoppers‘ last minute needs.
Shoppers also expect to spend £9.85 billion in the week before Christmas according to the survey, representing a 4.8 per cent increase on last year‘s expected spend of £9.4 billion.
Despite this high predicted spend, respondents said that they were attempting to reduce the cost of Christmas this year, with 39 per cent using vouchers or coupons to buy food or gifts and 26 per cent purchasing gifts using points they have collected from a loyalty or reward scheme.
One in 12 people are making their own gifts and 13 per cent plan to save money by buying gifts in the post-Christmas sales
Commenting on the findings, Stuart McKeggie, Head of Sainsbury‘s Credit Cards, said: “Our research indicates that Christmas Eve shopping continues to be as popular as ever, with millions of people still looking to pick up the perfect gifts right up until the last minute.
“Our research also suggests that more money will be spent on Christmas Eve in comparison to last year.
“For those shoppers who buy regularly from retailers that offer a loyalty scheme, or have a credit card that offers cashback or reward points, it could be worthwhile taking advantage of this while doing the Christmas shop and redeeming the rewards at a later date.”
