Mark your calendars: This will be the busiest shopping day of the 2017 Christmas retail season

Saturday, December 16 is the lucky day.

That’s the day tipped to be the busiest shopping day of this Christmas season, as Australians prepare to spend an estimated $11 billion in the lead up to December 25.

Christmas Day falls on a Monday this year and small businesses will no doubt be run off their feet on the Saturday and Sunday before the big day as last-minute gift buying and food preparation reaches fever pitch. But according to figures released this morning by CommBank, they’ll also need to be at full alert the weekend prior.

Some 8.5 million Australians are forecast to do Christmas shopping between December 15 and 17, with 6 million of those shoppers expected to do the majority of their shopping on the 16th.

The CommBank estimates are based on an online survey of approximately 1000 Australian consumers, aged 18 and over. The average spend per person is tipped to be just under $600 — a figure that has grown by 25% over the past five years — although the survey estimates 7 million Australians do not bother tracking how much they shell out at this time of the year.

And while bricks-and-mortar retailers will need to have their stores in prime condition over coming weeks to make the most of Christmas foot traffic, local online retailers look set for what could be their biggest Christmas to date if the CommBank figures are anything to go by: 13.3 million Australians are expected to shop online this Christmas, which is an increase of 1.1 million from last year.

Read more: Top tips for beating your competition at Christmas, no matter what industry

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