Spending on Christmas food and drink is set to be worth £20 billion this year, with the discounters expected to see major increases on previous years.
The £20bn calculation represents growth of 1.2 per cent compared to last year, when £19.7bn was spent.
The figure stems from research conducted by grocery research body, IGD.
Joanne Denney-Finch, IGD chief executive, said: “Even at Christmas, shoppers are still looking for ways to help manage their finances. As we’ve seen over the rest of this year, the big weekly shop is in decline – and this is no different at Christmas.
“Only three out of ten (27 per cent) shoppers are planning to do a ‘big Christmas shop’, as most people are intending to spread their shopping across a number of grocery formats and trips, with just over half (52 per cent) of them preferring to use a number of different stores and many of them doing so to secure the best prices.
'They are prepared to put the effort in to get the best products from a diverse range of stores, which is why a quarter (25 per cent) of shoppers tell us they are going to ‘cherry pick’.”
These savvy shopping techniques, therefore, are set to provide a festive boost to food discounters.
Joanne Denney-Finch, IGD chief executive, said: “We’re expecting food discounters to be the fastest growing part of the UK grocery market this Christmas, and their share of the market to be worth around £1.5bn.
'Seven out of ten (67 per cent) shoppers tell us they’re going to use them, and 6 per cent of these people say they don’t normally shop there but will try them this festive period. Some of the interesting reasons beyond cost that shoppers tell us they’re going to use discounters at Christmas include a quarter (26 per cent) saying they’d like to try new and different products, while nearly one in ten (8 per cent) say they would like to buy something that was recommended to them.
“However, the majority of shoppers (88 per cent) tell us they will be using supermarkets to buy their Christmas food and groceries.'
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