Pre-holiday price-slashing will trigger a record £7bn late shopping frenzy with price cuts up to 83 per cent
A RECORD £7billion will be spent this week amid pre-Christmas price cuts of up to 83 per cent.
With Christmas Day falling on a Monday, consumers have left it later to buy gifts for friends and family.
And analysts say it will lead to the biggest shopping week in the seven days to December 25.
Around £5.5billion will be spent in stores, data from the Office for National Statistics shows.
A further £1.5billion will be paid out online as websites offer guaranteed delivery before Christmas on last-minute buys, according to spending trends from the Centre for Retail Research.
Some shops have discounts of more than 80 per cent.
Prime's suspect
FURIOUS Amazon Prime customers say their Christmas deliveries are arriving four days late.
They claim it is missing targets on parcels meant to arrive the next day.
Complaints have been made to the Advertising Standards Authority. No official probe has been launched.
Prime is a £79-a-year service offering a one-day delivery service as well as television and music streaming.
Analysts say even bigger price cuts are expected this week.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, of the CRR, said: “This may well be the biggest spending week before Christmas ever.