COLCHESTER shoppers are set to fork out more than £27 million on presents this Christmas, experts say.

Statistics also show the average adult will spend £188 on festive gifts - compared to the national average of £213 - with two-thirds of shoppers buying presents in store rather than online this year.

British Land, which owns the Tollgate Centre, surveyed 2,000 shoppers to find out about their Christmas spending habits.

About 35 per cent told surveyors they had made their first Christmas purchase in August, while one quarter of people admitted they left the start of their spending spree until the first week of December.

Some 48 per cent of people said their partner is the hardest person to buy for, followed by 35 per cent of people admitting they are at a loss as to what to pick up for little ones.

In-laws appear to be the easiest to buy for, with only 4 per cent of Colchester shoppers citing a difficulty, while gifts for mums seem to be more important than presents for dads.

Some 29 per cent of people said they spent more time choosing a gift for mum with just 17 per cent saying they spend more time buying for dad.

Food shopping is a different matter, though, as 17 per cent of adults admitted leaving the big Christmas shop right up until Christmas Eve.

Giancarlo Ussi, Tollgate centre manager, said: “Christmas is an extremely important time of year for our shoppers, with an incredible amount of effort and planning going towards making it perfect.

“With our research finding that two thirds of shoppers will be doing their present buying in store this year, we’ll be doing all we can to provide our visitors with everything they need for their friends and families this Christmas.”

Peter Donaldson, who owns Red Lion Books, in High Street, Colchester, said his shop was “on track” to meet his own Christmas expectations and could even surpass them if he has a busy weekend before Christmas Day.

Mr Donaldson said: “For us, the only thing we can set performance against is our own expectations using previous years and at the moment, we are on track to be pretty much where we would want to be half of the way through the week coming into Christmas.

“The exact location of Christmas Day in the week can make quite a big difference so we are quite hopeful of this weekend.”

According to a national survey, high street footfall has fallen by 2.6 per cent this year but Mr Donaldson said statistics go out the window the closer Christmas gets.

He added: “When you get to the week before Christmas, people get less likely to order online because there is no guarantee items will arrive in time and that’s when bricks and mortar retailers come into their own.

“People know they can go to a shop, handover the money and they have the present in their hands and from our perspective, we are able to order an item for a customer overnight so our service is as good as it can be.”