Retailers are hoping that a last-minute rush will avert a bloodbath on the high street this Christmas as figures released yesterday showed that the number of shoppers remained well down on last year.

The grim news came as Whittard of Chelsea, the upmarket tea chain, stood on the brink of administration last night. The 122-year-old chain, which is backed by Landsbanki, the collapsed Icelandic bank, called in Ernst & Young as standby administrator after Landsbanki cut its funding lines, it is understood.

Desperate retailers are trusting that poor trading will be offset by the two extra shopping days they have before Christmas Day this year.

Many are beginning their January sales early, with B&Q and Homebase, the DIY chains, starting on Christmas Eve. John Lewis, the department store group, begins its sale online at 6pm on Christmas Eve, and Marks & Spencer, which has already mounted two “one-day spectaculars”, starts its online sell-off at one minute past midnight on Christmas Day.

This year will see the burgeoning trend for shoppers to switch on their computers on December 25 to search for bargains. Online retailers avoid the ban on Christmas Day trading.

The Interactive Media In Retail Group (IMRG) predicts that online spending on Christmas Day will increase by 23 per cent, to exceed £100 million for the first time, as an estimated 5.2 million shoppers log on.

The number of shoppers visiting stores on Saturday, the busiest shopping day of the year, was down by 8.4 per cent on last year. Sunday was down 9.4 per cent against the previous year, according to Experian.

The footfall figures, which measure the number of shoppers visiting shops, were an improvement on previous declines – visitor numbers were down by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent the previous week. But spending per transaction on Saturday also fell by 7.4 per cent to about £50, according to Visa, which processed 15 million transactions on the day. This will further trouble retailers, many of which are running record Christmas discounts.

Jason Gordon, retail director of Ernst & Young, said that retailers were relying on a last-minute spree by consumers who have waited to use the extra two shopping days. Last year Christmas fell on a Tuesday. He added: “I doubt that this last-minute surge is going to be enough. More likely, it will soften the blow. Transaction levels are up but spend per transaction is down.”

However, the West End of London proved to be one bright spot, as numbers were boosted by international shoppers lured by the weak pound. Footfall there was up by 19.6 per cent over the weekend.

A spokesman for New West End Company, the retailers’ association, said: “We’ve had a massive influx in European shoppers, in the last two weeks especially. Effectively, our shops are 30 per cent cheaper than they were a matter of months ago.”

Even if shoppers return to the high street today and tomorrow, ailing retailers may face collapse because deep discounting has eroded their profits, analysts said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers reported that a record 82 of the country’s biggest retailers were running discounts.

Begbies Traynor, the restructuring expert, expects up to 15 retailers to go bust by the end of next month.

Whittard, which has 500 employees, is likely to trade through the holiday period but Ernst & Young is in parallel talks with a number of bidders who are considering buying some of its 130 stores.

It is believed that Landsbanki, which the Icelandic Government nationalised in October, decided to stop lending to Whittard after a team from KPMG appointed to sell the business last month failed to find a buyer.

Whittard faces a rent bill on Christmas Day and it is believed that lenders are concerned that landlords will send bailiffs to seize stock.

The chain’s predicament raises the threat of a wave of bankruptcies at retailers backed by Landsbanki if the bank’s creditor committee, which is advised by Deloitte, has decided to get tough with the chains that it backs.

It is believed that Landsbanki could be going through the process of deciding which retailers to support and which to allow to go under as Britain’s retail woes continue.

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