Price cutting and buy-one-get-one-free offers have enticed shoppers

Shopper numbers fell 6% last weekend against the same time last year, but data company Footfall said numbers will pick up in the coming days.

It claims promotional offers and price cuts will encourage more spending.

A similar trend was seen last year, with numbers picking up in the three days before Christmas.

Footfall marketing director David Smyth said the "not-unexpected downswing" in the number of shoppers could be attributed to the fact that at the same time in 2003 there were just three full shopping days left, rather than the five days left this year.

Late rush

"Last year, footfall rose 45% week-on-week on the Monday, 45% on the Tuesday and 24% on the Wednesday," he said.

Separately, Barclays predicts that the busiest shopping days of the year will be Wednesday and Thursday.

On 22 and 23 December last year, shoppers spent £400m on their credit and debit cards, the bank said.

Meanwhile Sainsbury's Bank expects last-minute shoppers to spend £7.6bn before Saturday.

Anybody wavering over online orders now may come to the conclusion that it is not worth doing it - nobody wants to spoil Christmas for families and children and turn up without a present David Smyth, Footfall

And despite Footfall recording a dip in Christmas shoppers over the weekend, anecdotal evidence paints a different picture, with some retailers even trumpeting record-breaking consumer numbers.

Manchester's Trafford Centre said it was "the biggest Christmas to date", with sales up 5%.

The Regent Street Association said shops in central London were expecting the "best Christmas ever".

Online draw

Another possible explanation for the weekend's dip is the fact that more people are shopping online.

A swathe of data has trumpeted the rise of home shopping.

Last week, Retail Decisions forecast that UK online shopper numbers would double to 43% of UK consumers this Christmas, against the same period last year.

But with the deadline for last orders on the net upon us, there might be a surge in last-minute online sales.

Mr Smyth explained: "Today is the last day to guarantee delivery for Christmas.

"Anybody wavering over online orders now may come to the conclusion that it is not worth doing it - nobody wants to spoil Christmas for families and children and turn up without a present."

Christmas concerns

Concerns about Christmas trading have mounted on the back of a string of disappointing surveys.

First to sound the alarm was the British Retail Consortium, which said sales eased by 0.2% in November - the first fall since December last year.

M&S has put its faith in Martine and friends

Meanwhile, the CBI claimed a bumper Christmas would be a "big surprise" with just 12% of companies expecting good sales in December, while 21% believed they would be poor.

Retailers have been slashing prices and putting plenty of promotions on the shelves - in the hope that buy-one-get- one free offers will encourage more people into their stores.

Marks & Spencer is resorting to the charms of Rupert Everett and Martine McCutcheon in its television campaign to put a sparkle in its sales.

In November, M&S dropped its in store prices by 20% for a day and then held a second such sale in December.

But, while such schemes may pull in the punters, they do squeeze profits.

Two leading analysts - Nick Bubb of Evolution Securities and Seymour Pierce's Richard Ratner - have warned that like-for--like sales at M&S could be 10% lower than a year ago.