Over 23 million people will finish their shopping on Christmas Eve

Around 23.6 million people have left some of their festive shopping until the last minute and will be hitting the shops today, Christmas Eve, according to new research from Sainsbury's Bank Credit Cards.

Based on interviews with people regarding their Christmas week spending habits, the bank estimates that as much as 832 million pounds could be spent on Christmas Eve, and the number of people expected to shop is significantly higher than in 2013 when the research estimated that 17.5 million people still needed to finish their festive shopping the day before Christmas.

However, the research did note that Christmas Eve shopping this year is more likely to be a case of picking up the last few presents, rather than a frantic dash to do everything in a day. In 2013, Sainsbury’s Bank estimated 22 percent of all of the shopping in the Christmas week would take place on Christmas Eve, while in 2014 this has fallen to 11 percent.

The research also revealed that consumers have taken “careful consideration” about how they will fund this year’s Christmas presents, with 45 percent saying they planned to use money they have saved over the course of the year, while 22 percent said they planned to use a credit card that they would either pay off in full, or switch to a 0 percent balance transfer card. A further 4 percent said they will buy gifts using a 0 percent purchase credit card.

Simon Ranson, head of Banking at Sainsbury's Bank, said: “It appears that fewer people are leaving all of their shopping to the last minute however our research shows there could be a rising number who are hitting the shops for one or two further gifts or last minute items.”