Food, jewellery top last minute Xmas lists

Last minute gifts and festive foods are expected to be high on the agenda in the final day of retail trading before Christmas.

Retailers across the country are bracing for a rash of last-minute gift buying on Christmas Eve with spending for this year expected to top $48 billion across Australia.

Christmas Day falling on Monday this year has left some shoppers delaying their purchases to the last minute, National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lumb told AAP.

The last day rush is expected to focus on food, jewellery, Ms Lumb said.

"We expect tomorrow that food will be flying off the shelves," she said.

"In relation to those last-minute gifts we know that men tend to leave it to the last minute and we know that jewellers tend to have a small window in terms of what their Christmas looks like.

"We expect that they'll be doing particularly well because we know with high-end items people like to touch and feel them so in these last two days those are really quite significant days for those retailers."

Tech products such as Google's Home Mini and the HP Sprocket photo printer have proven popular items so far this festive season while Myer's personalised Tim Tams have also proven a hit for the department store.

Ms Lumb said modern retail was no longer a battle between "bricks or clicks" with more established retail companies now firmly involved in online shopping.

She added the continuing popularity of gift cards indicated another spending spree when the Boxing Day sales begin post-Christmas.

"We're very excited about Boxing Day and certainly we expect to see higher levels than last year," she said.


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Published 23 December 2017 3:38pm
Source: AAP


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