Shoppers spent millions on Christmas shopping at the eleventh hour as they were weighting for the best deals.

A survey suggested that 951,000 pounds would have been spent per minute on Christmas Eve on last-minute shopping.

Over thirteen million shoppers were expected to spend around 57 million pounds per hour on shopping on the Christmas Eve.

In America, figures compiled by the National Retail Federation showed that 19.1 per cent of shoppers had not begun their Christmas shopping by December 16, and 11.9 per cent said that they would purchase their last gift on December 24.

Major retailers such as B&Q and Tesco initiated online sales on Tuesday to take advantage of the last-minute rush.

Analysts said the fragile economy caused more shoppers to delay.