Last minute Christmas shopping leads to overspend.
Credit card provider Egg has said that last minute panic buying will lead to a consumer overspend of £594 million this Christmas.
4 million shoppers will buy their Christmas presents in the week before Christmas with a further 800,000 leaving their festive gift buying until Christmas Eve. Poor planning leads to panic buying and budget overspend. According to Egg, last minute shoppers will on average exceed their budgets by 39%, equivalent to £150 per shopper.
Alison Wright, Egg Chief Marketing Officer said:
“We still often resort to last minute panic buying. Consumers need to find ways to drive down the overall cost of Christmas – one way seems to be by avoiding those last minute shopping sprees, when lack of choice and panic buying are rife.”
The Egg research found that there is no gender stereotyping when it comes to Christmas shopping, Women and Men are just as likely to panic buy at the last minute.