The number of shoppers visiting high street stores on the last Sunday before Christmas tumbled nearly 10 per cent compared to the same day last year, figures published today reveal.

"Footfall" figures for Sunday suggest the number of people entering shops was down by 9.4 per cent on the last Sunday before Christmas in 2007.

The figures come after it emerged that the number of people entering stores on Saturday was down 8.4 per cent on the equivalent day last year.

Experian, which compiles the data, said this meant that the average for the full weekend was down 8.7 per cent on the same weekend last year.

It said this represented an improvement on last week as a whole — in which visitor numbers were down by between 10 and 15 per cent on 2007.

But it warned that retailers, which have been slashing prices aggressively in recent weeks, would still be disappointed by the figures.

Jonathan de Mello, director of retail consultancy at Experian, said: “As of last month, there were at least 19 pre-pack administrations planned for the retail sector post Christmas, three of which were major high street multiples. Given the dire Christmas retailers have had, this number is likely to rise considerably.

“Retailers in the homewares and bulky electrical goods sectors are likely to be the hardest hit by the economic downturn, as the products they sell are inextricably linked to the fortunes of the housing market, which is unlikely to return to its previous buoyant levels until 2011.

“A high percentage of pre-pack administrations in this sector is therefore inevitable, though in the case of MFI its planned pre-pack wasn’t enough to save them or their thousands of employees from insolvency.”

Mr de Mello said that in the last few years, a trend had emerged in which the bigger the drop in footfall in the weeks before Christmas, the higher the peak was in the last couple of days before Christmas Day.

He added: “Given the financial pressures, we can’t imagine it will be a spectacular increase, but as internet shopping for Christmas draws to a close, and with still three days to go till Christmas, retailers may be able to expect a last-minute rush of festive shoppers.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s leading department store chain John Lewis — a key high street bellwether — said it saw the start of a last-minute rush at the weekend, particularly among male shoppers.

It said sales during the week to Saturday were up 1.3 per cent on the previous week — although they were down 1.8 per cent on the equivalent week last year — with sales of gaming, technology and personal care all doing well, along with large televisions.

Patrick Lewis, John Lewis’s director of retail operations, said it had been notable that sales of gifts normally given by men to the women in their lives, such as fragrance and lingerie, had been strong during the last week.

He added: “We are now into the final run-up to Christmas and expect the last few days to be busy ones. We anticipate sales will continue to be fuelled by ‘last-minute’ gift items such as fragrance and toiletries gift sets.”

Mr Lewis predicted that Monday could be particularly busy. He pointed out that the last time Christmas Day fell on a Thursday, in 2003, the Monday before had been “incredibly busy”.

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