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UK shoppers are set to spend a record £74.3 billion in the run-up to Christmas 2014 – £1.6 billion more than they spent this time last year.
Plus, online sales at Christmas will grow by 19.5 per cent to £17.4 billion this year, compared to £14.5 billion in 2013, according to research commissioned by RetailMeNot, digital offer marketplace and operator of VoucherCodes.co.uk.
The study, conducted by the Centre for Retail Research, also found that the average UK household is forecast to splash out £775 on the festive season.
Mobile shopping, meanwhile, is expected to grow by 301 per cent year-on-year to £5.2 billion.
On the High Street specifically, shoppers are expected to spend £56.9 billion this year, but as Christmas Day draws closer, the proportion of online retail sales is likely to increase as consumers turn to the web to escape the crowds.
E-commerce is predicted to account for 23.4 per cent of Christmas sales this year, up from 20 per cent in 2013, while brick and mortar sales are expected to decline by 2.1 per cent.
The predicted data is for the six-week period between mid-November and Christmas.
Although the PC is still the number one outbound channel for Christmas shopping, with a predicted £12.2 billion to be spent by Brits, shopping on tablets is expected to account for £2.1 billion of all Christmas sales, while smartphones are expected to account for £3 billion, representing 18 per cent of all online sales.
Brits are set to have the highest share of online and mobile shopping in Europe this Christmas, ahead of the US.
Elsewhere, eMarketer expects overall UK retail sales to record growth of 2.9 per cent to reach £85 billion during the 2014 holiday season, with e-commerce sales to rise by 17.3 per cent to £12.8 billion.
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