The late dash from Monday to Thursday still left the number of shoppers 3.9 per cent down on the same period last year, according to FootFall, the market tracking agency. Retailers contacted by The Times were divided over how shoppers would behave today, the last shopping day before Christmas. A spokeswoman for John Lewis, the retail partnership, said that it was expecting trade to be relatively quiet today as most people would have finished work and would be less likely to visit stores on their way home. One experienced retailer agreed: “Most shopping will be local unless people specifically want to buy presents. The last 48 hours will all be about food shopping.”

Supermarkets, which are likely to be the big winners this Christmas, snapping up sales of toys, entertainment and electrical goods as well as food, are expected to be overflowing with last-minute shoppers today.

As a measure of the advance into non-food, Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, said that its sales of non-food over the internet were up more than 50 per cent on last Christmas. At peak times Tesco.com as a whole took 5,000 orders an hour. One million shoppers used the site in November and December.

Interactive Media in Retailing Group, the online retailers’ association, now expects online sales between the last week of October and Christmas Day to exceed the £5 billion it forecast. A spokesman said: “We have seen a massive increase in traffic online. In November sales increased by 50 per cent year on year to £2.23 billion.”

However, one leading high street clothes seller said that he still expected a “last-minute rush”. His forecast is backed up by the John Lewis Gazette from December 1994, the last time Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday, which records: “There was a considerable volume of business in the last three days, with customers continuing to purchase right up until the end.”

Natasha Burton, Footfall’s marketing manager, said: “With only two shopping days left, we are confident that the number of people shopping will continue to rise, with savvy shoppers who have been waiting to get the best deal possible, grabbing last-minute bargains.”

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