Christmas spending powers up

present, gift, christmasAustralians will move their Christmas shopping into top gear this week, with shoppers are expected to spend more than $8.7 billion in the next seven days as the countdown to Christmas begins, according to the latest projections from the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) Christmas Retail Index.

ANRA CEO, Margy Osmond, said Christmas shopping will intensify this week as shoppers finalise Christmas preparations.

“Retailers will be bracing themselves for a Christmas shopping frenzy over the next seven days where sales are expected to surge more than $1.65 billion since last week to $8.7 billion – up 23 per cent.

“Instore the tills will be ringing around the clock, with spending expected to soar to $7.8 billion – up 23 per cent from last week’s spending in bricks and mortar stores.

“About $900 million will be spent locally online – dropping 40 per cent since last week. We would expect a bulk of online shopping to be completed now, with shoppers crossing their fingers their online purchases are delivered in time,” said Osmond.

NSW will again be making the biggest contribution to the sales lift this week – up 21 per cent since last week.

“In NSW retailers can expect $459 million more through the cash registers than last week, with estimated spend across the state reaching $2.6 billion. Queenslanders will also lift their spending to $2.05 billion – up $562 million from last week.

“Individually we will part with about $377 per person this week as we wrap up the last full week of shopping. Of this, $338 is expected to be spent in bricks and mortar stores. There will be little left to spread to online retailers as shoppers err on the side of delivery caution.

“West Australians will be the biggest individual spenders this week – where last minute shoppers in the west are expected to spend around $483 each.

“Wrapping up Christmas shopping early will be ACT residents. The more organised of all the states and territories will spend less this week compared to last week – down from $129 million to $73 million – after having their biggest spending surge last week.

“Last minute Christmas shoppers are expected to take advantage of the extended trading hours in droves this week with Gen Y shoppers out in force.

“Almost 35 per cent of Gen Y shoppers told us they would be doing their shopping between December 14 and Christmas Eve. For those anticipating a gift from a young Australian shopper, you will probably receive a Departmen -store bought gift – 34 per cent of Gen Y shop there,” said Osmond.

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